Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress Senate Bill SB1295 Compare Versions

Only one version of the bill is available at this time.

Old	New	Differences
1	1	II
2	2	119THCONGRESS
3	3	1
4	4	STSESSION S. 1295
5	5	To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop and implement
6	6	a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other synthetic drugs in the mail
7	7	at Federal correctional facilities.
8	8	IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
9	9	APRIL3, 2025
10	10	Mr. J
11	11	USTICE(for himself, Mr. FETTERMAN, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr. CASSIDY,
12	12	Mrs. C
13	13	APITO, Mr. CRUZ, and Ms. HASSAN) introduced the following bill;
14	14	which was read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary
15	15	A BILL
16	16	To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop
17	17	and implement a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other
18	18	synthetic drugs in the mail at Federal correctional facili-
19	19	ties.
20	20	Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
21	21	tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
22	22	SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
23	23	This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Bureau Of Prisons 4
24	24	Security Check and Action against Narcotics in Mail Act’’ 5
25	25	or the ‘‘BOP SCAN Mail Act’’. 6
26	26	SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 7
27	27	Congress finds the following: 8
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31	31	(1) The Bureau of Prisons has 122 institutions 1
32	32	located throughout the United States, employs near-2
33	33	ly 38,000 employees, and is responsible for more 3
34	34	than 150,000 Federal inmates. 4
35	35	(2) Inmate mail is a primary entry point for 5
36	36	smuggling drugs into correctional facilities, with 6
37	37	tainted mail incidents also on the rise. 7
38	38	(3) Elimination of dangerous contraband, in-8
39	39	cluding synthetic drugs, in mail is essential to pro-9
40	40	tecting the health and safety of employees of the Bu-10
41	41	reau of Prisons and Federal inmates. 11
42	42	(4) Prisons in the United States are increas-12
43	43	ingly deadly facilities, with a 600 percent rise in 13
44	44	drug overdoses in recent years. 14
45	45	(5) The introduction of synthetic drugs, par-15
46	46	ticularly fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, into cor-16
47	47	rectional facilities by mail threatens employees, in-17
48	48	mates, and the security of correctional institutions, 18
49	49	and the practice of deliberately lacing opioids to en-19
50	50	sure targeted lethality represents a dramatic emerg-20
51	51	ing concern. 21
52	52	(6) The foregoing factors add tremendous pres-22
53	53	sures and workload that further burden existing em-23
54	54	ployees, commonly reassigning officers from other 24
55	55	functions to assist in processing mail. 25
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59	59	(7) Employees at correctional facilities at Fed-1
60	60	eral, State, and local levels continue to request drug 2
61	61	interdiction technologies to protect themselves and 3
62	62	inmates. 4
63	63	(8) A congressionally authorized digital mail 5
64	64	scanning pilot program at the Federal Correctional 6
65	65	Institution, Beckley, West Virginia, and the United 7
66	66	States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania, from 8
67	67	March 2020 through June 2021, demonstrated ef-9
68	68	fective interdiction technology and practices aimed 10
69	69	at eliminating dangerous contraband arriving 11
70	70	through the mail and served as an effective deter-12
71	71	rent to smuggling attempts. 13
72	72	(9) Apart from digital mail scanning, there is 14
73	73	no widely deployed interdiction technology that has 15
74	74	demonstrated a 100 percent efficacy to detecting 16
75	75	fentanyl, and other synthetic drugs, arriving through 17
76	76	the mail at Bureau of Prisons facilities. 18
77	77	(10) Removing mail processing from Federal 19
78	78	prisons and relieving Bureau of Prisons employees 20
79	79	from mail sorting duties will result in an extensive 21
80	80	budgetary relief to the Bureau of Prisons and de-22
81	81	crease the staffing shortages facing prisons. 23
82	82	SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 24
83	83	In this Act: 25
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87	87	(1) DIRECTOR.—The term ‘‘Director’’ means 1
88	88	the Director of the Bureau of Prisons. 2
89	89	(2) O
90	90	PIOID.—The term ‘‘opioid’’ has the mean-3
91	91	ing given such term in section 102 of the Controlled 4
92	92	Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802). 5
93	93	(3) S
94	94	YNTHETIC DRUG.—The term ‘‘synthetic 6
95	95	drug’’ means a controlled substance analogue (as 7
96	96	such term is defined in section 102 of the Controlled 8
97	97	Substances Act (21 U.S.C. 802)), and includes any 9
98	98	analogue of fentanyl. 10
99	99	SEC. 4. STRATEGY TO INTERDICT SYNTHETIC DRUGS IN 11
100	100	POSTAL MAIL. 12
101	101	(a) E
102	102	VALUATION.—Not later than 180 days after the 13
103	103	date of enactment of this Act, the Director shall evalu-14
104	104	ate— 15
105	105	(1) the acquisition and deployment of synthetic 16
106	106	drug interdiction equipment and technology by Fed-17
107	107	eral correctional facilities; 18
108	108	(2) the use of technology services by Federal 19
109	109	correctional facilities to scan mail; and 20
110	110	(3) whether any technologies used by other 21
111	111	Federal agencies or State and local corrections facili-22
112	112	ties to intercept and interdict contraband in the mail 23
113	113	may be used by the Bureau of Prisons. 24
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117	117	(b) STRATEGY.—Not later than 90 days after com-1
118	118	pleting the evaluation under subsection (a), the Director 2
119	119	shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-3
120	120	ate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 4
121	121	Representatives a strategy to provide all Federal correc-5
122	122	tional facilities with capabilities necessary to— 6
123	123	(1) protect staff and inmates from exposure to 7
124	124	synthetic drugs and opioids introduced to facilities 8
125	125	through the mail; 9
126	126	(2) ensure that— 10
127	127	(A) not later than 24 hours after a piece 11
128	128	of mail is received at a Federal corrections fa-12
129	129	cility or an appropriately contracted offsite loca-13
130	130	tion, each inmate receives a digital copy of any 14
131	131	mail that is addressed to the inmate; 15
132	132	(B) not later than 30 days after receiving 16
133	133	a digital copy of a piece of mail under subpara-17
134	134	graph (A), the inmate receives the original 18
135	135	physical copy of any mail that— 19
136	136	(i) does not contain synthetic drugs or 20
137	137	opioids; and 21
138	138	(ii) is addressed to the inmate; and 22
139	139	(C) delivery to the inmate under subpara-23
140	140	graphs (A) and (B) is documented; 24
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144	144	(3) ensure that a process is in place for the 1
145	145	processing of legal mail that includes— 2
146	146	(A) the verification of the sender; and 3
147	147	(B) maintains attorney client privilege as 4
148	148	required by existing law; and 5
149	149	(4) achieve 100 percent scanning capacity of 6
150	150	mail arriving at all Federal correction facilities. 7
151	151	(c) C
152	152	ONTENTS.—The strategy required under sub-8
153	153	section (b) shall— 9
154	154	(1) identify critical information technology, dig-10
155	155	ital mail scanning equipment, and mail scanning 11
156	156	services necessary to achieve the scanning capacity 12
157	157	described in subsection (b)(4); 13
158	158	(2) include an assessment of operational and 14
159	159	logistical considerations, including— 15
160	160	(A) prioritization of high security and 16
161	161	large inmate population facilities for digital 17
162	162	mail scanning infrastructure and security tech-18
163	163	nology deployment; 19
164	164	(B) any need for additional personnel and 20
165	165	technology training necessary to implement the 21
166	166	strategy; and 22
167	167	(C) scanning equipment maintenance re-23
168	168	quirements and periodic digital technology up-24
169	169	grades; 25
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173	173	(3) include an equipment and technology budg-1
174	174	etary proposal, for fiscal years 2025 though 2027, in 2
175	175	order to fully implement the strategy described 3
176	176	under subsection (b); and 4
177	177	(4) include strategies for conducting oversight 5
178	178	of the contractor providing the scanning service for 6
179	179	the mail. 7
180	180	(d) I
181	181	MPLEMENTATION DEADLINE.—Not later than 3 8
182	182	years after the date on which the strategy is submitted 9
183	183	under subsection (b), and subject to appropriations, the 10
184	184	Director of the Bureau of Prisons shall complete imple-11
185	185	mentation of the submitted plan. 12
186	186	(e) A
187	187	NNUALPROGRESSREPORTS.—Beginning 1 year 13
188	188	after the date on which the strategy is submitted under 14
189	189	subsection (b), and each year thereafter, the Director of 15
190	190	the Bureau of Prisons shall submit to the Committee on 16
191	191	the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Ju-17
192	192	diciary of the House of Representatives a report on the 18
193	193	efficiency of the strategy and the total quantity of detected 19
194	194	synthetic drugs and opioids. 20
195	195	Æ
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