[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5266 Introduced in House (IH)]
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118th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 5266
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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
August 25, 2023
Mr. Bacon (for himself, Mr. Cartwright, Mr. Weber of Texas, Mr. Pappas,
Mrs. Miller of West Virginia, and Mr. Cuellar) introduced the following
bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Interdiction of Fentanyl in Postal
Mail at Federal Prisons Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
Congress finds the following:
(1) 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.
(2) Inmate mail is a primary entry point for smuggling
drugs into correctional facilities, with tainted mail incidents
also on the rise.
(3) 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.
(4) Prisons in the United States are increasingly deadly
facilities, with a 600 percent rise in drug overdoses in recent
years.
(5) 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.
(6) The foregoing factors add tremendous pressures and
workload that further burden existing employees, commonly
reassigning officers from other functions to assist in
processing mail.
(7) Employees at correctional facilities at Federal, State,
and local levels continue to request drug interdiction
technologies to protect themselves and inmates.
(8) 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.
(9) 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.
(10) 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 and
decrease the staffing shortages facing prisons.
SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) The term ``opioid'' has the meaning given such term in
section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802).
(2) The term ``synthetic drug'' means a controlled
substance analogue (as such term is defined in section 102 of
the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802), and includes any
analogue of fentanyl.
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 of the Bureau of Prisons (referred
to in this Act as the ``Director'') shall evaluate--
(1) Federal correctional facilities' acquisition and
deployment of synthetic drug interdiction equipment;
(2) Federal correctional facilities' use of technology
services to scan mail; and
(3) whether any technologies used by other Federal agencies
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--
(1) protect staff and inmates from exposure to synthetic
drugs and opioids introduced to facilities through the mail;
(2) ensure that--
(A) not later than 24 hours after a piece of mail
is received at a Federal corrections facility, each
inmate receives a digital copy of any mail that is
addressed to the inmate;
(B) 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
(C) delivery to the inmate under subparagraphs (A)
and (B) is documented; and
(3) achieve 100 percent scanning capacity of mail arriving
at all Federal correction facilities.
(c) Contents.--The strategy required under subsection (b) shall--
(1) identify critical information technology, digital mail
scanning equipment, and mail scanning services necessary to
achieve the scanning capacity described in subsection (b)(3);
(2) include an assessment of operational and logistical
considerations, including--
(A) prioritization of high security and large
inmate population facilities for digital mail scanning
infrastructure and security technology deployment;
(B) any need for additional personnel and
technology training necessary to implement the
strategy; and
(C) scanning equipment maintenance requirements and
periodic digital technology upgrades; and
(3) include an equipment and technology budgetary proposal,
for fiscal years 2024 though 2026, in order to fully implement
the strategy described under subsection (b).
(d) Annual Progress Reports.--Beginning 1 year after the date on
which the strategy is submitted under subsection (b), and each year
thereafter, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall submit to the
Committee on the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the
Judiciary of the House of Representatives a report on the efficiency of
the strategy and the total quantity of detected synthetic drugs and
opioids.
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