Crime & Law
Paper Mail Is Seen as a Source for Drugs in Illinois Prisons. How Is It Tracked?
(txking / iStock)
Dré Patterson recalls his cellmate smoking “openly, back to back, for hours on end,” with smoke encircling his head.
Patterson, who doesn’t smoke, has seen the K2 — or synthetic marijuana — epidemic firsthand inside the Illinois Department of Corrections, he wrote to WTTW News from the Big Muddy Correctional Center.
He said the prevalence of the drug is “tragic to bear witness” to. He’s seen correctional staff walk through plumes of smoke, giving warnings to “get that under control.”
He’s also witnessed individuals handle a paper drug, skin to skin, and not be affected.
What Patterson has seen isn’t isolated to his own facility. Correctional workers and Republican lawmakers have said exposure to synthetic cannabinoids, specifically, have led to hospital visits and have impacted facilities across the state.
In an effort to control the spread of the drug, they have honed in on the physical mail that enters facilities, culminating in the introduction of a now dead bill to ban physical mail.
Despite his direct knowledge of the drug’s presence, when Patterson heard of allegations of drugs entering through physical mail and swirling rumors that paper mail would be banned, he had questions.
“The crazy thing is that amidst all of the reporting about the ‘drug scare,’ no one has asked for proof,” he wrote of the focus on mail.
It’s unclear exactly how many drugs are entering IDOC facilities through the mail, according to data obtained by WTTW News. From January to mid-December of 2024, 779 synthetic cannabinoids were discovered, according to data. The “point of discovery” for that drug type was 188 by mail, while 410 were discovered “in cell” and 156 were discovered “on person.” That data also showed there were 419 suspected synthetic cannabinoid overdoses last year, of which 229 were “staff exposures.”
As of Nov. 30, there were 28,991 people incarcerated in IDOC facilities.
The “point of discovery” refers specifically to where the substance is found, whereas the “point of entry” refers to when and where the substance entered the facility, IDOC spokesperson Naomi Puzzello said in a statement.
If tainted mail is found in a cell, it is considered an in-cell discovery, Puzzello said. There are many scenarios in which a substance might not be detected initially, like the mail not appearing abnormal during initial inspection, or a substance could have been introduced through another method and later stored in someone’s cell, she added.
A Move Away From Paper Mail?
AFSCME Council 31, the union that represents most correctional workers in Illinois, maintains that mail is the predominant method by which drugs are acquired — “some illicit substances are intercepted when mail is searched; some mailed substances are not detected by those searches but are later found in cells,” Anders Lindall, spokesperson for the union, said in a statement.
In a report on this issue, the union recommended that IDOC shift to photocopying paper mail where possible.
In October, IDOC signed a contract with communications company ICSolutions, which gives the agency the ability to scan and digitally deliver mail. Puzzello said the department is still determining how this technology will be utilized.
IDOC launched a scanned mail pilot program for non-legal or state official mail in 2023 at Menard Correctional Center and last year at Pinckneyville Correctional Center.
Marvin Bochantin, a major who retired from IDOC last fall, explained how mail was processed at his facility, Menard: Mail would come in through the mail room and staff would open it to check for contraband like knives or drugs. They had a test kit that would tell them if paper mail was laced with a synthetic drug. If it tested positive, it would be mailed to the Illinois State Police for further testing.
If someone failed a drug test, is found in possession of contraband “likely introduced through the mail” or there’s evidence that that person misused or attempted to misuse the mail system for contraband, a warden can place them on “mail scan status” for 90 days, where their non-privileged mail would be scanned, according to Puzzello.
Bochantin said the use of electronic tablets could reduce contraband-induced troubles — if there are “illegal activities from dangerous communications,” digital information “can be reviewed at any time.” He also said it could alleviate the amount of physical documents incarcerated people keep for legal work.
While IDOC said it hasn’t taken sweeping action on this, Candace Chambliss, legal director for the Illinois Prison Project, said they’re facing delays with legal mail getting to clients — what would normally be sent and received in the span of days is now taking weeks.
There have been instances of incarcerated clients receiving legal mail already opened, which she said is illegal.
“We don’t have really another way that’s confidential to reach our clients, other than legal calls,” Chambliss said. “Legal mail is not a risk. I mean, lawyers aren’t sending drugs into the prisons through legal mail. … I think it is unfounded.”
Puzzello said the department has not changed its policy in regard to privileged mail (which includes legal mail) and that the mail is opened in front of individuals in custody.
Why Some Want Paper to Stay
The halt of physical mail into prisons would not stop drugs from coming in and would have “devastating consequences,” Eric Diaz, who’s incarcerated at Hill Correctional Center, wrote in a letter to WTTW News.
“I believe that this is just another way for the department to place a band-aid on a wound that has been getting deeper over the decades and not getting to the root of the problem of why individuals are continuing to indulge in negativity and not getting rehabilitated in the first place,” he wrote.
States that have switched to scanned mail haven’t solved their drug issues. In Pennsylvania, for example, the rate of random positive drug tests among incarcerated people more than doubled the rate it was before the mail scanning system went into effect.
To get to the root of the problem, there need to be conversations around people as the source of contraband, said Jennifer Vollen-Katz, executive director of the John Howard Association, a prison watchdog group.
“Who are the people that come in and out of our facilities, they’re the people that work in our facilities,” Vollen-Katz said. “It’s people that deliver things to the facilities. It’s vendors who work on contract with the prison system, and it can be visitors. I don’t think that anybody really wants to talk about the fact that staff are a main vehicle of contraband into our prisons.”
Lindall said the union has seen no evidence to support this.
“The facts are these: Corrections employees risk their personal safety to serve in state prisons around the clock, they’re subject to search for contraband upon going to work, and they’re the ones who’ve been sounding the alarm to get drugs out,” Lindall said in a statement.
Currently, people incarcerated can communicate with people outside through an email-like service, ConnectNetwork. Patterson said he’s experienced institutions processing those messages once a week.
“It’d be like snail mail getting a shiny new chrome finish to its shell, but its biological makeup still remains,” Patterson wrote.
Diaz is concerned there would be a lag in receiving mail if it were to be scanned and sent to tablets. He said he’s in correspondence with an educational correspondence course with an outside school, as well as loved ones. It could compromise education and communication with those on the outside, he said.
Patterson has a list of questions around what could happen if physical mail is no longer available: “What happens to my ability to receive books? Academic articles? Greeting cards? I do a lot of writing for an online public my partner created, as well as publishing excerpts of fictional stories … how will I navigate that? Will there be extra censorship to communications?”
“If IDOC is willing to provide state of the art services to accommodate residents, then it’s a good thing,” Patterson wrote. “But we also know that the mail isn’t the only/main source of contraband in these institutions. So, what are you really trying to stop?”
Contact Blair Paddock: @blairpaddock | [email protected]
