UPDATE: Drug-laced mail causes increasing concern among prison staff | News

Days after a federal correctional officer in California died while handling suspected drug-laced mail to an inmate on August 9, an officer at FCI Allenwood fell ill while working in the mailroom at the Union County Jail.

“We don't know if he was exposed to fentanyl, but it seemed that way,” said Keith O'Neal, chairman of Council of Prisons Local 307, of the allegedly drug-laced mail the officer came into contact with while working at the low-security prison last month.

O'Neal said the unidentified employee, who was due to retire in 10 days, was hospitalized with elevated heart rate and blood pressure.

A few weeks earlier, a police officer at the medium-security prison in Allenwood was hospitalized after a search of an inmate revealed suspected drug contact, he said.

A growing number of similar incidents in federal prisons across the U.S. has prompted local union officials to call for the passage of a bill that would prohibit federal prisoners from receiving physical mail. Since all inmates in the country's 122 federal prisons have limited access to the Internet, they can and should receive mail electronically, the bill's supporters say.

“I would love for mail to never come into the facility again,” O'Neal said, citing the use of mail to deliver contraband and secret messages to inmates as a security risk. “That would protect us and the inmates.”

US Representative Dan Meuser co-sponsored a bill to introduce email scanning in US prisons.

“Digitizing the mail will help protect our correctional officers from harm and reduce the number of inmate overdoses, which have increased by nearly 600 percent in recent years,” he said.

On Thursday, U.S. Senators Bob Casey (D-Penn.) and Martin Heinrich (D-New Mexico) introduced a bill to protect prison guards, staff and inmates from fentanyl and other illicit substances entering the federal prison system via prisoner mail.

“As we fight the fentanyl crisis, we must protect those who are at increased risk of dangerous exposure,” Casey said. “I have long advocated for digital verification of mail to prevent fentanyl from entering our prisons and thus protect officers, staff and inmates.”

“This legislation is a critical step to ensure the safety of Pennsylvanians, and I will continue to fight with all my might to end the fentanyl crisis.”

Matthew Barth, president of Local 148, which represents correctional officers at FCI Lewisburg, and Matthew Citino, president of Local 3020 at FCI Schuylkill, said the rise in drug use among prison employees shows the deadly risks they face every day.

“The public needs to be informed about what is going on in prisons,” said Barth. “We need the public as advocates.”

Reducing exposure to potentially deadly contraband in prisoner mail is just one issue that needs to be addressed immediately, according to Barth and Citino.

They are calling on Bureau of Prisons Director Colette Peters to increase her funding request this year from $8.4 billion to $11.7 billion to reduce wage disparities and encourage hiring in understaffed prisons.

According to Barth, FCI Lewisburg has 57 vacant officer positions. According to Citino, FCI Schuylkill has 67 officers, well under the 104 positions the BOP says it needs.

Recruiting officers is difficult, they say, because federal prisons cannot compete with the higher salaries of other agencies such as TSA and ICE.

“We’re doing a job that no one else wants to do,” Citino said.

Despite the “inherent dangers” of working in the corrections system, Barth said, “There are things the (BOP) can do, and with the public's support, we can be safer. We will do what the bureau asks us to do, but we will get the tools and support we need.”

Meuser, one of the co-initiators of another bill to raise salaries for correctional officers, said he would “continue to keep an eye on this important issue.”

Casey is also co-sponsoring a measure to ensure that prison employees, especially in rural areas, are paid fairly.

“As long as Pennsylvania's BOP employees suffer from low pay and understaffing, I will fight for the good pay and working conditions these hard-working officers deserve,” he said.