We post news and comment on federal criminal justice issues, focused primarily on trial and post-conviction matters, legislative initiatives, and sentencing issues.
IN WASHINGTON, PLEAS TO TOUGHEN UP ON INMATE MAIL
Senators Robert Casey (D-PA) and Martin Heinrich (D-NM) last week introduced legislation to require the Federal Bureau of Prisons to screen all prison facility mail for contraband.
S. 5128, the Interdiction of Fentanyl at Federal Prisons Act, is intended to “reduce the risk of intentional poisoning or lethal exposure from illicit substances in federal prisons and support the 38,000 BOP corrections officers and staff that are dedicated to keeping prisons safe,” according to a press release.
The bill would require the BOP to deploy equipment and technology to achieve 100 pct scanning capacity of postal and legal mail arriving at Federal correctional facilities, ensure that inmates “receive a digital copy of all mail addressed to them, including legal mail, while remaining consistent with the law and BOP procedures governing attorney-client privilege” and “guarantee the delivery of all contraband-free original mail after it has been screened as soon as is practicable.”
The bill promises to “provide the BOP with an estimated $377 million in savings over a 10-year period.” Although as of this morning, the text has not yet been published, Filetr magazine reported this week that the newly proposed bill appears nearly identical to H.R. 5266, the Interdiction of Fentanyl in Postal Mail at Federal Prisons Act, introduced in August of last year. H.R. 5266 has languished in the House ever since but has collected 127 cosponsors since being introduced by Rep Don Bacon (R-NE), with Republican sponsors outnumbering Democrats 87 to 40.
Exactly how the BOP would pay for all of this scanning and where the “estimated $377 million in savings” would come from remain unexplained.
Filter blasted the bills as being lagnappes for private contractors:
Passive fentanyl exposure is a myth. Mail scanning has always been motivated not by safety, but by money. As the nationwide understaffing crisis deepens in state prison systems as well as the BOP, private contractors like Securus Technologies are promoting their automated mail-scanning services as the solution corrections departments are looking for. Some BOP facilities already use the MailGuard scanning service from SmartCommunications, a private correctional technology firm that claims to have pioneered off-site mail processing.
I suspect that nothing will happen with these bills prior to the expiration of the 118th Congress at the end of the year. If I am wrong, yet another connection to home will be stripped away from inmates for a spurious gain in staff safety.
S. 5128, A bill to require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop and implement a strategy to interdict illicit substances and other contraband in the mail at Federal correctional facilities (September 19, 2024)
Press Release: The Interdiction of Fentanyl at Federal Prisons Act of 2024 (September 19, 2024)
Filter, The Prison Mail Bans Aren’t About Fentanyl. They’re About Understaffing. (September 23, 2024)
– Thomas L. Root