By Matt Gray
nj.com
New Jersey instituted a new mail screening program this year that sends letters and other mail addressed to state prisons nearly 2,500 miles across the country for review before copies are sent to inmates.
The new system — which sends the mail to a Las Vegas vendor to be opened and screened — is designed to stem the flow of drugs into New Jersey prisons.
New Jersey’s prisons have struggled with K2 or “Spice,” a synthetic drug that mimics the main psychoactive ingredient of marijuana, getting to prisoners via the mail.
K2 is an easy substance to smuggle because, as a liquid, it can be sprayed on a plain sheet of paper and eventually smoked. The substance dries and can be undetectable to the eyes of prison staff checking mail, according to law enforcement officials.
“Across the nation, illegal contraband including synthetic drugs pose evolving and complex challenges for correctional facilities. Synthetic cannabinoids like K2 have unpredictable chemical makeups, are easily concealed and can lead to severe health effects making detection, prevention and response difficult,” the state Department of Corrections said in a statement.
The new system that sends mail to Nevada for screening was launched Jan. 1 and the state is spending $700,000 on the service, state officials said.
A state corrections union official says the system has already cut inmate overdoses by 50%. He hopes it also cuts the number of corrections officers sickened by inhaling smoke when prisoners use K2.
As of January, prisoner mail sent through the U.S. Postal Service must be delivered to Pigeonly Corrections, a third-party mail vendor in Las Vegas .
The mail is opened by the vendor, screened for contraband, scanned and printed out. The paper copies are then forwarded to inmates in New Jersey .
Letters, greeting cards, postcards, photos and other items processed by the vendor are reprinted in color in an effort to match the original, according to information about the prison mail processing change on the state Department of Corrections website.
Mail with glitter, rhinestones, stickers, newspaper clippings, coins, toys and a variety of other additions are rejected under the new system. A list of restrictions can be found online and a corrections department video describes the reasons for the new mail security effort.
The scanned mail is also shared electronically with the correctional facility for any further screening. Originals are held by Pigeonly for 45 days before they’re destroyed.
The system does not apply to legal mail — correspondence from lawyers, courts and other government entities — which is still sent directly to detention facilities.
Five ways to implement effective mail screening as part of a comprehensive interdiction strategy:
Experts warn K2 and similar products sent through the mail and used by prisoners can cause elevated heart rate, tremors, seizures and hallucinations. Synthetic cannabinoids laced with other substances, such as the synthetic opioid fentanyl, have been tied to overdoses and deaths, according to federal officials.
Overdose rates have dropped across the state corrections system by around 50% since the new mail system was put in place, according to NJ PBA Local 105 President William Sullivan.
The new mail screening process was expanded earlier this month to include items sent to detainees at the Special Treatment Unit in Woodbridge, Sullivan said.
The facility, next door to East Jersey State Prison, houses more than 400 civilly committed sex offenders.
The sex offenders are former inmates who were deemed too dangerous to release after completing their prison sentences.
NJ Advance Media published a series of articles about the controversial facility last year, including one that highlighted concerns about drug addiction among detainees at the treatment unit.
Detainees and advocates say substance abuse, including the use of K2 smuggled in on paper, is a widespread problem that goes largely untreated in the facility and that overdoses are common in the unit.
K2 use is a big problem at all state prisons and can affect corrections officers exposed as detainees or prisoners smoke the drug, according to Sullivan.
Corrections officers in the Special Treatment Unit have been sent for medical care after exposure to K2 smoke four times in the last month, he said.
Six officers and two supervisors were taken for outside medical treatment following an incident on April 17, Sullivan said.
Another officer was taken from the facility over an exposure concern last week, he said.
“Second-hand smoke inhalation is causing the officers to have to go out and get evaluated,” Sullivan said. “It makes the officers lightheaded, vomit, dizzy, a little disoriented.”
In most cases, officers are cleared to return to work the next day, according to Sullivan.
“Some, maybe if they have asthma or other lingering issues, it might take longer,” he said. “I had one officer that was out for six months to a year.”
State Department of Corrections officials confirmed corrections officers in the Special Treatment Unit were exposed to the drugs this month.
“At all NJDOC facilities, our staff take a vigilant approach to deter the introduction of illegal contraband. At two separate events this month in the Special Treatment Unit, staff reported adverse symptoms after responding to resident incidents. All NJDOC staff were treated and cleared to work the following day,” the department said in a statement.
The recent rash of exposure incidents among officers at the treatment unit could be because detainees knew the mail system change was coming and they stocked up on the drug, Sullivan said.
When it’s smoked, K2 smells like burning wires, Sullivan said. The smoke often lingers in the air and can be hard to clear.
The issue is worse in facilities with poor ventilation and windows that don’t open, such as the Special Treatment Unit, Sullivan said.
The corrections department has tried using air scrubbers at a prison to remove the substance, but that didn’t work, according to Sullivan.
“We tried them out and it still doesn’t filter out the smell or the smoke,” he said.
Sullivan remains concerned about the unknown health effects of the drug.
“We don’t know what the long-term effects are of it. There are no studies on it,” he said.
The version of K2 smuggled into detention facilities is often laced with other substances, increasing its potency and the chance for overdoses, he said.
“If you go to the mom and pop shop down the street and buy K2, people are getting high, but they’re not overdosing. It’s the stuff that’s coming into the prisons laced with different chemicals,” he said. “I’ve seen inmates have superhuman strength on this stuff. It’s pretty dangerous.”
While officials believe the mail changes are making a difference in slowing smuggling to prisons, two key challenges remain, according to Sullivan.
Drugs can still be smuggled by staff working at detention facilities and legal mail remains a viable option for K2 distribution, he said.
In many cases, the K2 is sprayed on phony legal documents made to look like they came from a legitimate attorney, Sullivan said. Officers are prohibited from studying legal documents without probable cause, but officers are now cross-checking lawyer names on envelopes to try and head off the fakes.
The corrections department is also in the process of getting equipment that will scan legal mail for traces of illicit substances, Sullivan said.
While the new mail system can be frustrating and confusing for families of inmates, prisoner rights advocate Bonnie Kerness said she knows the corrections department has tried other methods to slow K2 smuggling into the state’s prisons.
The agency even tried scanning mail themselves before turning to a third-party vendor, said Kerness, director of the Newark -based Prison Watch Program.
She first heard complaints about K2 in prisons from inmates complaining about the proliferation of the drug and the toll is was taking on fellow prisoners.
“They were getting sick from the smoke. They were watching young people just drop in their tracks,” Kerness said.
The new mail system is still fairly new and she hopes any kinks in the plan can be resolved.
“There’s a lot of frustration with it, which I get,” she said. “I’m frustrated. I would rather not deal with this, but I get it.”
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