Stamping Out Drugs by Mail:
How One Jail System is Using Technology to Halt the Flow of Illicit Substances Embedded in Postal Mail
Pete Safran
Thomas Diina
The Jail Management Division of the Erie County Sheriff’s Office in New York was facing a growing problem affecting correctional facilities nationwide—the infiltration of drugs through mail.
By 2016, officials at the two Erie County facilities—a pre-trial, maximum security holding center for up to 638 individuals and a correctional facility for 746 pre-sentence and locally sentenced individuals—had grown alarmed by the influx of suboxone that was flowing into their system. As the home to New York State’s second-largest detention facility outside of New York City, the county confronted a challenge that threatened the health and safety of both its housed population and its staff of 750.
Suboxone has become a high demand drug in correctional facilities for multiple reasons. In Erie County, it was being abused as an opioid, but it was also in demand by incarcerated individuals who were battling substance abuse disorders. Regardless of the end use of the illicit drug, it had become a commodity and was trading as currency inside the Erie County jail system for two to three times its street value.
As more suboxone found its way into the Erie County system, the safe environment officials strove to maintain suffered. Strongarming and fights were on the increase, and there was always the very real threat that someone could have an adverse reaction to the illicit drug.
A Hole That Proved Hard to Plug
Erie County had strong correctional practices in place, including a well-staffed intelligence division, a network of informants, information-gathering from monitored phone calls, a canine unit, and a body scanning machine. Ironically, it was that already strong intelligence network that clued officials into the flow of illicit drugs through the mail. In monitored calls, they listened in as residents instructed contacts on the outside how to hide drugs in mail.
But knowing drugs were flowing in through the mail and identifying them before they hit the population were two different things. With nearly 400 pieces of mail arriving at the county facilities each day, officials had no idea which letters were legitimate, and which were carriers of contraband.
Postal mail presents special challenges to correctional facilities. Incarcerated individuals are legally entitled to receive mail. Jail is a traumatic environment, and regular communication with loved ones, including mail in its original form, contributes to overall mental health and rehabilitation. Withholding suspicious mail was not a solution.
Another piece of the challenge was that drugs concealed in mail were often very difficult to detect, due to the growing sophistication of concealment methods and the wide range of substances in question. In addition to suboxone, facilities also find that heroin, fentanyl, methadone, methamphetamine, and cocaine are prevalent—as are everyday items such as roach motels and wasp spray. Drug smugglers often soak the pages of a letter with chemicals—powders that dissolve easily, such as methamphetamine and synthetic cannabinoids, are especially popular—allowing the pages to dry before mailing it.
Other common methods include hiding powder under stamps, along the adhesive flap of the envelope, and even inside a postcard that has been split with a razor and reattached. Some even melt suboxone strips into crayons, which children use to draw pictures for their loved one in jail. Another way of smuggling in drugs is through doctored envelopes to make them appear to be official legal documents.
Erie County did have access to tools to screen incoming mail-detected anomalies—but they were unable to identify the substance. And they returned a significant percentage of false positives. So far, officials hadn’t found a reliable method to identify and halt the flow of drugs.
An Intriguing Solution
Erie County officials attending an American Jail Association conference that year stopped at the booth of a company that offered an intriguing solution—a mail screener that could presumptively identify drugs being smuggled into correctional facilities through postal mail.
In a matter of seconds, the technology could detect illicit drugs and common cutting agents in mail items, including envelopes, paper, stamps, stickers, as well as under crayon, marker and paint. An operator could objectively determine the presence of an illicit substance, pinpoint its location, and presumptively identify the substance.
Originally developed for use by the Department of Defense, the technology relied on hyperspectral imaging—a process by which hundreds of unique spectral images are captured across the electromagnetic spectrum in the short-wave infrared portion, just beyond what is visible to the human eye.
For the first time, officials in Erie County had hope of presumptively identifying—and blocking—banned substances in the mail room, rather than waiting for the drugs to infiltrate their population.
They arranged for a demo at their offices, inviting the county’s chief of narcotics to attend the session. He mocked up several dummy envelopes laced with narcotics, and the group watched as the machine correctly identified each drug. The team was impressed and purchased the technology for its two facilities.
Detection and Deterrence
On its first day of use, the screening technology detected the presence of suboxone in an incoming letter. In the first 60 days of use, it identified a dozen pieces of mail that were tainted.
Officials report that word “spread like wildfire” through both facilities that Erie County now had technology in place to identify drugs in mail. That has proven to be one of the greatest benefits of the technology—it has deterred incarcerated individuals from attempting to transport contraband into the jails by mail.
Detection and deterrence weren’t the only benefits of the screening technology. Officials report that overdoses are down, as are fights related to drugs. With two mail screeners now in place, they feel confident that they have essentially shut down the mail system as a transport channel for drugs. Officials are particularly glad they had the solution in place during the spike in fentanyl; drugs still flow into the jails, but they can focus on other delivery channels, knowing they have reliable detection of mail-borne contraband.
A Win-Win for Customer and Vendor Alike
A final benefit of Erie County’s partnership with the screening manufacturer has been the ability to exchange information, which has aided the entire corrections industry. Jails are on the front line of drug smuggling and are often the first to see a spike in a new narcotic or delivery method.
Sharing that feedback with the manufacturer has helped it build out its catalogue of contraband for which it can test and detect. In turn, the manufacturer can alert jails to trends it is observing around the country, helping all corrections officials be more informed and prepared in their fight against illicit drugs.
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Pete Safran is CEO of Eclipse Screening Technologies, the developer and manufacturer of the patented VeroVision®, the only image-based mail screener capable of presumptively identifying drugs in the mail. Safran’s career in cutting-edge technology spans more than two decades in several industries, including the corrections sector. Eclipse Screening Technologies’ innovative solutions protect correctional facilities, law enforcement agencies, and courts from harmful chemicals nationwide. For more information, he can be contacted at pete@eclipse-st.com
Thomas Diina has served as the Erie County Sheriff’s Office as Chief of Community Reintegration since 2022. Prior to his current position, Diina spent 21 years working in jail management in Erie County. For more information, he can be contacted at Thomas.Diina@erie.gov
