THE FOLLOWING IS AN IL STATEHOUSERADIO RELEASE
State Representative Adam Niemerg (R-Dieterich) sent a letter to Governor J.B. Pritzker urging him to take immediate action by directing his Department of Corrections to stop the flow of illegal drugs into Illinois prisons by way of the mail. After touring two facilities in his district, Robinson Correctional and Lawrence Correctional, Niemerg requested that Acting Director Latoya Huges purchase copy machines to copy the drug-laced paper mail onto clean paper to give to the inmates and either destroy or return the original copies.
“There are growing safety concerns at Illinois prisons as both inmates and staff have been hospitalized and at least four inmates have died,” explained Rep. Niemerg in his letter to Gov. JB Pritzker. “Synthetic cannabis is getting into prisons via the mail by people lacing letters with highly potent drugs and mailing them to inmates in the prison and the results have been deadly as four inmates have died, including one at Lawrenceville Correctional Center, and numerous guards have been hospitalized.”
According to news reports, there have been at least 88 incident reports from 16 different Illinois prisons in the last few months. These incidents are mostly attributed to synthetic cannabis. When the inmates light up the paper laced with the synthetic drugs, guards inadvertently breathe it in and become sick.
“Just recently another corrections officer at Lawrenceville Correctional Center was hospitalized after being exposed to the drugs,” continued Niemerg in his letter to the Governor. “I was shocked at how easily the problem could be solved for just a couple hundred dollar copy machine to prevent the drugs from entering our prisons.”
Niemerg points out that Lawrenceville Correctional Center for example gets on average 80-90 pieces of mail per day. Copying that many letters would not take an inordinate amount of time. The union leaders Niemerg spoke to have no issue with copying letters if it means preventing guards from being hospitalized.
“This seems like a common-sense solution to a very real problem. Unfortunately, when I spoke to Corrections Acting Director Latoya Hughes, she wanted no part of this solution,” added Rep. Niemerg. “I understand there may be a permanent solution in the works, but we are months maybe more than a year away from implementing that solution. We need solutions now to avoid more hospitalizations, more deaths, and protect our workers!”
