Texas prisons’ problem: Mail soaked in fentanyl, meth and other drugs

By Dallas Morning News Editorial

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice has wrapped up a six-week lockdown of all 100 of its prisons and jails with troubling reports of discovering thousands of pieces of paper soaked in liquefied drugs.

Inmates wad up bits of drug-laced paper, often sent to them through the mail, and swallow them to get high. A single sheet is estimated to provide 100 to 150 hits.

That’s why the department was right to recently adopt a digital-only mail policy to help stem the flow of drugs into prisons.

Beginning last month, TDCJ began scanning all inmate mail and sending color copies to each recipient’s computer tablet. A private company has issued to the majority of Texas inmates these devices, which they can use to make phone calls, watch movies, and access educational material or other information, TDCJ prison spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez told us. Those who don’t have tablets receive black and white photocopies of their mail, she said.

Of course, mailrooms aren’t the only avenue for drugs into prisons. Visitors, volunteers and even staff also smuggle in contraband. To combat that, Hernandez said, TDCJ has also stepped up searches of everyone entering their units, including increasing the use of drug-sniffing dogs.

But the recent trend of drenching letters and other paper products in drugs and sending them to inmates has prompted prison officials nationwide to look for solutions. According to the Prison Policy Initiative, an inmate advocacy group, at least 14 other states have adopted digital-only mail policies for prisoners.

We acknowledge the organization’s concerns that taking away hand-written notes and photographs deprives inmates of important links to family and loved ones in the free world.

But the increase in drug-laced paper found behind bars is too dangerous a problem to overlook. Officials tie drugs to a significant spike in homicides in the last year. Seven inmates were killed in prisons in all of 2022. But that number soared to 16 by Sept. 6, prompting the lockdown. As of this week, that number had risen to 21. Drugs, Hernandez said, are often at the center of disputes that lead to these killings.

How bad has the drug problem gotten? On average last year, prison officials reported 238 illegal drug “discoveries” every month systemwide, Hernandez said. But during the lockdown, they found far more than that: 1,239 sheets and 865 credit-card sized stamps of methamphetamines, amphetamines, fentanyl, PCP or K2, a synthetic marijuana. They also found drugs in pure form, as well as 501 cellphones, 41 gallons of alcohol, 510 weapons, mostly pieces of sharpened metal, and 493 “other dangerous items,” including tattoo guns and a handcuff key, according to TDCJ.

Keeping drugs out of prison is easier said than done and will always be a challenge for any warden. But the staggering tally of drugs discovered during the recent lockdown makes clear that TDCJ’s new digital-mail policy is both smart and necessary to keep everyone inside prison walls safe.

This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.