Why strict prison mail policies make sense

The New York Times is changing my mind. 

It’s no secret that I was not pleased when the Michigan Department of Corrections adopted a new mail policy whereby residents of our state prisons could no longer receive original letters and cards from friends and loved ones. Instead, prison staffers would open the mail, photocopy the card or letter, and destroy the original. Later, explaining that the state was dealing with some drug issues, the department extended the policy to include legal mail. And that’s when I complained. 

“Constitutional violation,” I cried. “A violation of attorney/client confidentiality!” 

Then, last month, I learned of a special report from the New York Times about a nationwide drug problem in prisons. NYT team-members conducted a sweeping investigation that started at the Cook County Jail in Chicago. The conclusion: A means of drug abuse in jails and prisons all around the country now looks an awful lot like office supplies! Reporters Azam Ahmed and Matt Richtel traced how sheets of seemingly ordinary paper—books, letters, even legal documents—have become vehicles for powerful synthetic drugs that are killing inmates faster than investigators can identify what's on them. The story focuses on the Cook County facility, but authorities in prisons across the U.S. are dealing with the same problem…and that includes the MDOC. 

Just recently a Michigan prison snitch was telling me about "toochie" --- originally a cannabis product---that now can be just about anything sprayed on paper and smoked, including insecticide, rat poison and formaldehyde. Another common smuggling method involved soaking paper in liquid Suboxone and mailing it to inmates. Sometimes the drugs are mixed with ink or crayon wax and delivered as handwritten mail or children’s drawings. 

Now I’m beginning to understand these strict mail policies. 

The drug trade has quietly moved beyond the stories we’ve been hearing about traditional contraband in prisons. According to Newser AI, these days “…dealers spray lab-made chemicals onto paper worth thousands of dollars a sheet, route it through girlfriends, corrupt staff, legal mail, and even third-party Amazon-style book shipments, and sell tiny rectangles inside for hundreds of dollars! Police labs take months to decode each new compound, while illicit chemists churn out fresh variants in what the NY Times calls an ‘arms race in potency.’" 

The dried paper is rolled into a cigarette shape and then lit with a makeshift lighter or matches, often smuggled into the facility. Smoke is inhaled directly from the burning paper, delivering the drug into the system. 

The MDOC’s mail policies are, without a doubt, part of an effort to head off this serious drug threat, and it’s pretty difficult to find fault with that. 

The department has its hands full. HFP clients are telling us that, aside from this popular paper-smoking business, traditional drugs are still being regularly smuggled in by staff, as well as by innovative methods like the use of drones. 

The New York State Department of Corrections and Supervision said preventing contraband and the danger it brings is a constant challenge. 

Indeed!