S. 1295

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1295 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 1295

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

April 3, 2025

Mr. Justice (for himself, Mr. Fetterman, Mrs. Blackburn, Mr. Cassidy, 
Mrs. Capito, Mr. Cruz, and Ms. Hassan) introduced the following bill; 
which was read twice and 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 ``Bureau Of Prisons Security Check and 
Action against Narcotics in Mail Act'' or the ``BOP SCAN Mail 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 of 
Prisons and decrease the staffing shortages facing prisons.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act:
(1) Director.--The term ``Director'' means the Director of 
the Bureau of Prisons.
(2) Opioid.--The term ``opioid'' has the meaning given such 
term in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 
802).
(3) Synthetic drug.--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 shall evaluate--
(1) the acquisition and deployment of synthetic drug 
interdiction equipment and technology by Federal correctional 
facilities;
(2) the use of technology services by Federal correctional 
facilities to scan mail; and
(3) whether any technologies used by other Federal agencies 
or State and local corrections facilities 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 or an 
appropriately contracted offsite location, 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;
(3) ensure that a process is in place for the processing of 
legal mail that includes--
(A) the verification of the sender; and
(B) maintains attorney client privilege as required 
by existing law; and
(4) 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)(4);
(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;
(3) include an equipment and technology budgetary proposal, 
for fiscal years 2025 though 2027, in order to fully implement 
the strategy described under subsection (b); and
(4) include strategies for conducting oversight of the 
contractor providing the scanning service for the mail.
(d) Implementation Deadline.--Not later than 3 years after the date 
on which the strategy is submitted under subsection (b), and subject to 
appropriations, the Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall complete 
implementation of the submitted plan.
(e) 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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