Why corrections officers need to pay extra attention to incoming mail

Contraband smuggling in correctional facilities was already on the rise before the coronavirus pandemic, and would-be smugglers continue to develop new means of concealment. This evolving challenge to safety inside jails and prisons has intensified in the past year, and due to the lockdowns to combat the spread of the COVID-19 virus, postal mail has become a favored conduit for contraband drugs.

Synthetic cannabinoids – commonly referred to as “K2” or “Spice” – present one of the biggest problems right now, says Dr. Michael Frunzi, a senior scientist and business development manager with Smiths Detection. Although these are certainly not the only kinds of drugs being smuggled, SCs can be difficult to identify and cause a wide range of unpredictable and often dangerous behaviors in users.

“All of the work-related dangers – be it violence, mental burnout, dealing with inmates with a mental or physical illness – all of those dangers are made worse by contraband narcotics in general, and Spice specifically because of its unpredictable health effects,” said Frunzi. “Also, inmates who are harmed or killed by violence or overdose or suicide put the facility at huge potential liability, so that’s definitely something to be avoided, for ethical as well as legal reasons.”