GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- County jail inmates will no longer get traditional mail deliveries -- just access to scanned images of letters through kiosks -- an effort to block drug-soaked papers from getting into the lockup.
The county Board of Commissioners approved an amended contract Wednesday, Jan. 19, with Global Tel*Link to provide offsite mail scanning, adding two years to the company’s existing contract to provide telephone and video visitations at the jail.
“Unfortunately, right now, we’re getting an uptick in contraband that’s coming in through the U.S. mail,” Capt. Jason Gould of the county Sheriff’s Department told commissioners. “It’s undetectable ... It’s sprayed on like almost a perfume but you can’t smell it.
“It dries on the paper and then it’s sent to the inmates in the jail,” Gould said. “What they’re doing is ripping off corners of it, (ingesting it) and getting high. We can’t do anything about that except (with) this type of a system.”
Sheriff Chris Swanson said work is already underway to install mail kiosks in the jail and said the conversion to scanned mail could be completed in a matter of weeks.
Swanson said Suboxone, used for the treatment of opioid dependence, and methamphetamine are two drugs that can be turned into liquid form and transferred to paper, creating the potential for contraband entering the jail.
The Criminal Justice Testing and Evaluation Consortium, a program of the National Institute of Justice, said in September that opioid analogs, synthetic cannabinoids, and synthetic cathinones can also be liquified and sprayed onto paper products, such as mail and trafficked surreptitiously in jails and prisons, contributing to overdoses and deaths.
“This is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time,” Swanson said of the pending change in mail handling. “It’s getting to 21st Century” jail management.
The county isn’t alone in restricting traditional mail in jails and prisons across the country.
In 2020, the Oakland County Jail replaced normal postal mail delivery for inmates and switched to a system similar to the one planned here.
In Oakland County, the mail is screened and scanned into a high-definition color copy that inmates can access with electronic tablets, according to The Associated Press.
Also in 2020, the Michigan Department of Corrections announced it would begin photocopying incoming mail and delivering photocopies only to prisoners due to an increase in drugs and contraband.
Just eight months ago, Jackson County officials announced that their jail would only accept pre-postage stamped postcards for inmate mail.
Related: Inmate mail restricted to postcards only now at Jackson County Jail
Jail officials there said they made the decision to allow only postcards to counter the risk of contraband.
Gould said only legal papers will be opened in front of inmates once the new Genesee County mail delivery system is in place.
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