ALBANY — The state prisons are rolling out a new screening process meant to catch drugs and other contraband smuggled into facilities through legal mail.
Legal mail, letters and documents sent between an incarcerated person and their attorney or representatives on the outside, has long been a point of contention of state prison staff, especially corrections officers. When thousands of COs went on strike in February through mid-March, one of their asks was that the state move to close the “legal mail loophole” and offer better screening for all items brought into the prisons.
For years, the state prisons have opened and scanned all non-legal correspondence, like letters to and from family or friends, delivering it to prisoners using prison-provided tablet computers that almost all incarcerated people have.
Smuggling opportunity
But legal mail cannot be opened by Department of Corrections and Community Supervision employees. It has to be physically handed to the addressee sealed. It’s also not verified to be legal mail. There have been a number of reported incidents where mail was made to look like a legal communication, but was in fact sent by someone attempting to smuggle controlled substances into the prisons.
They demanded that the state Department of Corrections engage a third-party company to manage screening of all legal mail, which many COs have said is a way that contraband and dangerous drugs are smuggled into the prisons.
Just last month, an Albany woman admitted she had laced copy paper and envelopes with synthetic marijuana chemicals, disguised them as legal mail and sent them to a number of state prisons, pleading guilty to three federal charges related to the creation of the illegal substances and the trafficking of them.
Outside contract
On Thursday morning, DOCCS announced that it talked with two different vendors and entered into a contract for a company to “procure, distribute and train staff” on new mail-scanning technology.
“This process will allow us to screen all legal mail for contraband before it is opened and significantly reduce this ongoing safety concern,” their statement reads.
DOCCS Commissioner Daniel F. Martuscello III shared a video statement Wednesday directed toward DOCCS staff, updating them on the path forward. He said all facilities will get screening tech within the next few months.
“All legal mail will be screened using this new technology,” Martuscello said. “If a foreign substance is detected, the sender will be contacted to determine if they sent the correspondence. If they confirm they sent the correspondence, they will be informed it failed our screening process and be provided the option to have the sealed item picked up at the facility or destroyed. If the sender denies or does not respond, the correspondence will remain sealed and turned over for further investigation.”
According to DOCCS’ Thursday announcement, 10 prisons will get the scanners first. Starting Friday (yesterday? Aaron how would we say this?), Attica, Franklin, Upstate, Woodbourne and Wyoming prisons will get the scanners and begin training. Auburn, Cape Vincent, Cayuga, Gouverneur and Riverview will get equipment and training at the end of the month.
Martuscello said DOCCS is rolling the machines out to the remaining facilities as quickly as the contractor can build the machines and ship them. At facilities that do not have legal mail scanning machines, Martuscello said the interim policy will be to withhold all legal mail deliveries until they can be verified as legitimate with the law office they originated from.
Documents filed with the state comptroller’s office indicate that the contract, signed March 28, is with RaySecur Inc., a Massachusetts-based mail security company that uses millimeter-wave scanning technology. The total contract amount is for $4,407,614.41, and has an end date of March 27, 2030.
In his Wednesday video message, Martuscello also said that the agency has rolled out a new policy related to visitation. All visitors who will be in physical contact with an incarcerated person are now required to proceed through body scanning machines, the same kind used by the Transportation Security Administration at midsize and large airports.