Illinois prisons to begin scanning all incoming mail under new emergency rule
ILLINOIS(KBSI) – The Illinois Department of Corrections(IDOC) is making changes to their mail system after labor union reports say workers are being exposed to hazardess substances.
On August 14th, the Illinois Department of Corrections launched a sweeping emergency rule that will replace incoming physical mail with a printed or digital copy, aiming to reduce the amount of contraband making it into prison through the mail system.
Under IDOC’s new rule all incarcerated individuals will receive either a digitized copy or printed version of their mail.
Terri Bryant is a Illinois Senator of the 58th Senate District. She shares that contraband such as fentanyl, synesthetic drugs, and chemical exposure making it into Illinois prisons is a major problem.
“I have a mother right now whose son died of fentanyl, and she wants answers for how fentanyl got into the facility for her son to die” says Bryant. “There are multiple ways that they’re coming into the facilities. Sometimes it can be staff, sometimes it’s volunteers, sometimes it’s inmate families. It can be multiple ways, but the most aggressive means that it’s coming in is through the mail.”
According to reports over the last year a large amount of IDOC workers have been sent to the hospital for overdose symptoms from multiple facilities. So much so that IDOC workers went on strike because of the unsafe work conditions.
Tony McCombie is the House Republican Leader Sate Representative of District 89. She says this continues to be a issue they hope to now address.
“This is obviously a concern for not only for, the guards at, our corrections, but also for the safety of the inmates” says McCombie “and there has been, over the years, several different occasions where unknown substances, have been an issue.”
Right now, the emergency rule enacted by IDOC is in affect for 150 days, McCombie shares that currently only 3 Illinois prisons have begun using the electronic system, but the goal is to prepare all IDOC prisons to use the new system.
“This is definitely a problem. So, they are testing it. They started in one correction’s, they picked up another one, and now they have come forward and tomorrow and during JAYCAR, which is our administrative rules committee, they’re actually going to come forward and say, you know what, we don’t need a statute, but we do need a change in the rules. So, they’re going to sit before that committee tomorrow and, go ahead and hopefully address the issues via rules” says McCombie.
Through the electronic scanning system mail will be scanned into a system and incarcerated individuals will receive the exact copy of the letter to their personal tablets. Bryant shares that she believes this is a step in the right direction.
“This is not the end all to beat all. It’s a move in the right direction. But I also think it’s a shiny object or smoke and mirrors, and I want the agency to get a little bit more forthright with what’s going on. This is a good start” says Bryant.
