S. 1295

119th CONGRESS 1st Session

To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop and implement a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other synthetic drugs in the mail at Federal correctional facilities.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES · April 3, 2025 · Sponsor: Mr. Justice · Committee: Committee on the Judiciary

Table of contents

• S. 1295
  • SEC. 1. Short title
  • SEC. 2. Findings
  • SEC. 3. Definitions
  • SEC. 4. Strategy to interdict synthetic drugs in postal mail

SEC. 1. Short title

• This Act may be cited as the or the .

SEC. 2. Findings

• Congress finds the following:
  • The Bureau of Prisons has 122 institutions located throughout the United States, employs nearly 38,000 employees, and is responsible for more than 150,000 Federal inmates.
  • Inmate mail is a primary entry point for smuggling drugs into correctional facilities, with tainted mail incidents also on the rise.
  • Elimination of dangerous contraband, including synthetic drugs, in mail is essential to protecting the health and safety of employees of the Bureau of Prisons and Federal inmates.
  • Prisons in the United States are increasingly deadly facilities, with a 600 percent rise in drug overdoses in recent years.
  • The introduction of synthetic drugs, particularly fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, into correctional facilities by mail threatens employees, inmates, and the security of correctional institutions, and the practice of deliberately lacing opioids to ensure targeted lethality represents a dramatic emerging concern.
  • The foregoing factors add tremendous pressures and workload that further burden existing employees, commonly reassigning officers from other functions to assist in processing mail.
  • Employees at correctional facilities at Federal, State, and local levels continue to request drug interdiction technologies to protect themselves and inmates.
  • A congressionally authorized digital mail scanning pilot program at the Federal Correctional Institution, Beckley, West Virginia, and the United States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania, from March 2020 through June 2021, demonstrated effective interdiction technology and practices aimed at eliminating dangerous contraband arriving through the mail and served as an effective deterrent to smuggling attempts.
  • Apart from digital mail scanning, there is no widely deployed interdiction technology that has demonstrated a 100 percent efficacy to detecting fentanyl, and other synthetic drugs, arriving through the mail at Bureau of Prisons facilities.
  • Removing mail processing from Federal prisons and relieving Bureau of Prisons employees from mail sorting duties will result in an extensive budgetary relief to the Bureau of Prisons and decrease the staffing shortages facing prisons.

SEC. 3. Definitions

• In this Act:
  • The term Director means the Director of the Bureau of Prisons.
  • The term opioid has the meaning given such term in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (). 21 U.S.C. 802
  • The term synthetic drug means a controlled substance analogue (as such term is defined in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act ()), and includes any analogue of fentanyl. 21 U.S.C. 802

SEC. 4. Strategy to interdict synthetic drugs in postal mail

• (a) Evaluation
  • Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall evaluate—
    • the acquisition and deployment of synthetic drug interdiction equipment and technology by Federal correctional facilities;
    • the use of technology services by Federal correctional facilities to scan mail; and
    • whether any technologies used by other Federal agencies or State and local corrections facilities to intercept and interdict contraband in the mail may be used by the Bureau of Prisons.
• (b) Strategy
  • Not later than 90 days after completing the evaluation under subsection (a), the Director shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of Representatives a strategy to provide all Federal correctional facilities with capabilities necessary to—
    • protect staff and inmates from exposure to synthetic drugs and opioids introduced to facilities through the mail;
    • ensure that—
      • not later than 24 hours after a piece of mail is received at a Federal corrections facility or an appropriately contracted offsite location, each inmate receives a digital copy of any mail that is addressed to the inmate;
      • not later than 30 days after receiving a digital copy of a piece of mail under subparagraph (A), the inmate receives the original physical copy of any mail that—
        • (i) does not contain synthetic drugs or opioids; and
        • (ii) is addressed to the inmate; and
      • delivery to the inmate under subparagraphs (A) and (B) is documented;
    • ensure that a process is in place for the processing of legal mail that includes—
      • the verification of the sender; and
      • maintains attorney client privilege as required by existing law; and
    • achieve 100 percent scanning capacity of mail arriving at all Federal correction facilities.
• (c) Contents
  • The strategy required under subsection (b) shall—
    • identify critical information technology, digital mail scanning equipment, and mail scanning services necessary to achieve the scanning capacity described in subsection (b)(4);
    • include an assessment of operational and logistical considerations, including—
      • prioritization of high security and large inmate population facilities for digital mail scanning infrastructure and security technology deployment;
      • any need for additional personnel and technology training necessary to implement the strategy; and
      • scanning equipment maintenance requirements and periodic digital technology upgrades;
    • include an equipment and technology budgetary proposal, for fiscal years 2025 though 2027, in order to fully implement the strategy described under subsection (b); and