Drug-soaked paper was smuggled into at least one Kansas prison, according to state officials, who cited the ordeal as the reason for changing print newspaper subscription policies.
In late August, the Kansas Department of Corrections suddenly canceled subscriptions purchased by outside parties for those in state custody, confounding newspaper publishers across the state. Officials cited “dangerous contraband” and a need to preserve safety but did not go into specifics
David Thompson, a spokesman for the agency that oversees state prisons, disclosed the drug-soaked newsprint after a Kansas Reflector story published on Sept. 8.
“The impetus for this policy is an increase in drug-soaked material, such as books and newspapers, being transmitted to residents through the USPS,” he wrote in a Sept. 9 email.
When reached by phone Wednesday, he refused to confirm any criminal investigation into the alleged distribution and possession of drug-soaked newspapers.
In an earlier email, he wrote that the agency was “not able to provide additional information because doing so could jeopardize the safety of our employees, residents, and facilities, and negatively impact ongoing investigations. However, the challenge of drug-laced paper in correctional facilities is not isolated to Kansas. This is a challenge in both federal and state facilities across the country.”
In documented reports of drug-laced paper products mailed into prisons across the United States and abroad, officials detail criminal enterprises involving soaking or spraying paper, often in strips, in a liquid containing synthetic drugs.
In those reports, the drug-laced paper is often appended to books, pamphlets or legal mail. Legal mail is usually confidential and cannot be inspected by prison officials. Kansas Reflector could not identify any other recorded examples of newspapers used as a means for transporting drug-infused paper strips.
Once inside the prison, incarcerated individuals typically smoke the strips or eat them, creating serious health risks.
The corrections department implemented its new policy on Aug. 27, requiring incarcerated individuals to buy a print subscription themselves. Digital subscriptions were unaffected. Without notice to newspaper publishers, many were confused by the subscription cancellations that rolled into newsrooms following the change.
Emily Bradbury, the executive director of the Kansas Press Association, said concerns remain for Kansas newspaper publishers and media professionals. She has heard from more publishers across the state who have seen canceled subscriptions following the policy change.
Bradbury said it’s not an issue she wants “swept under the rug,” but she said she hopes for a solution once she can meet with corrections officials. She said that it is in the interest of publishers to have newspapers reaching the communities they cover.
“It’s also in our best interest as an industry to have an engaged and informed citizenry,” Bradbury said, “and that includes those living in correctional facilities.”
In response to the influx of drugs smuggled into prisons by mail, some corrections agencies, including Kansas’, have taken steps to digitize or screen mail before it reaches incarcerated individuals.
New Jersey prison officials have struggled to combat the flow of mail soaked or sprayed with K2, a synthetic cannabinoid also called spice, according to reporting from the New Jersey Monitor, a States Newsroom outlet. Now, mail is sent to a facility in Las Vegas for review before being photocopied, put in an envelope and delivered to the intended recipient, according to New Jersey Department of Corrections policy. But the method has sparked privacy concerns.
Privileged legal correspondence, books, magazines, publications with a spine and newspapers are sent directly from a publisher to New Jersey inmates, the policy said. The same is now required in Kansas.
All other mail, except privileged legal correspondence, delivered to Kansas prisons is inspected, withheld and photocopied before reaching designated incarcerated individuals, according to agency policy.
The Criminal Justice Testing and Evaluation, a research-based program within the National Institute of Justice, found in a 2021 report that digitized personal mail could be an effective way to stem the flow of drugs into prisons.
“While a digitized incoming inmate mail solution can eliminate vulnerabilities associated with traditional mail, it is not a panacea,” the report said. “The demand for drugs is not altered, and inmates and their conspirators will seek to exploit other contraband pathways (e.g., visitors, staff, drones, throw-overs).”
This story was originally published by the Kansas Reflector.
