WASHINGTON ( CNN ) -- Convicted `` shoe bomber '' Richard Reid was given permission to correspond from prison with members of his family this summer , after the Justice Department allowed restrictions on him to expire . Richard Reid was arrested in December 2001 , accused of trying to blow up a plane with explosives in his shoes . But several homeland security experts say that even with wardens screening every letter , they 'd prefer to see imprisoned terrorists held completely incommunicado . `` If a terrorist can communicate with his family , with other associates -- even with monitoring -- he could use codes ; he could be directing other terrorist acts , '' said former New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir , who is now a security consultant . `` This is somebody who tried to blow up hundreds of innocent people on an airliner , and in my view , he should be totally restricted . '' Safir first voiced his concern in an interview with the Boston Herald over the weekend . Watch reaction to new rights for Reid » . The British-born Reid pleaded guilty seven years ago to trying to blow up a jetliner flying from Paris , France , to Miami , Florida , in December 2001 using explosives hidden in his shoes . He was sentenced to life in prison and is jailed at the high-security `` Supermax '' federal penitentiary in Florence , Colorado . A Justice Department spokesman said that after a thorough review , the special administrative measures that Reid had been under were not renewed in June , on the recommendation of three agencies : the FBI , the prosecuting U.S. Attorney 's office and the Justice Department 's Counterterrorism Section . Reid had sued the Justice Department over the issue . Even with the restriction lifted , Bureau of Prisons spokeswoman Traci Billingsley says , the only people a Supermax inmate can correspond with are his direct family members , his attorneys and the media . In addition , `` any regular inmates , especially terrorism convicts , have all their communications screened , both incoming and outgoing , '' she said . But limiting letters to family members does not prevent wider dissemination , says Clark Kent Ervin , former inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security . `` Those letters could be forwarded by family members to others , '' he said . Another risk , according to Ervin : `` The propaganda potential is huge for these kinds of things . Terrorists can be hugely inspiring figures '' to young militants hearing jailhouse manifestos , he says . Several years ago , three convicted terrorists from the 1993 World Trade Center bombing managed to send at least 90 letters to militants overseas , including those linked to the Madrid , Spain , train bombings . And according to a Justice Department 's inspector general report of September 2006 , one of them also `` praised Osama bin Laden as a hero in a letter sent to Arabic newspapers . '' But in the wake of that report , Justice Department spokesman Dean Boyd says , all phone calls and mail from international terrorist inmates are now screened . `` Mail is not delivered to or sent from such inmates until it is read ( translated if necessary ) and analyzed for intelligence purposes , '' with the help of FBI personnel and on-site Arab-language specialists , Boyd says . `` If suspicious content is found , the correspondence is referred to the FBI for analysis before being processed any further . '' In addition to Reid , Supermax houses some of the most notorious convicted terrorists , including 1993 World Trade Center bombing mastermind Ramzi Yousef , September 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui , `` dirty bomb '' plotter Jose Padilla and `` millennium bomb '' plotter Ahmed Ressam . CNN 's Brian Todd contributed to this report .
Richard Reid was given permission to contact his family this summer . Reid pleaded guilty in 2002 to trying to blow up Paris to Miami flight . He planned to use explosives hidden in his shoes to carry out the attack . Security experts fear he could use new privileges to help plot more attacks .