[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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