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Commissioners press staff for data after staff says mail is a growing contraband route
Summary
Commissioners asked staff how much contraband arrives through mail after staff described an increase; staff said existing incident categories do not isolate incoming‑mail contraband and that manual review of reportable incidents would be required to produce precise figures.
During discussion of correspondence variances, a commissioner pressed staff for quantitative evidence that incoming mail is a significant conduit for contraband, asking specifically: "as a percentage of the amount of mail that's coming in, what are they catching? How much?"
Staff replied that current reportable‑incident categories mix sources and do not single out mail; to provide the requested percentages staff said they would need to run a manual review of hundreds of thousands of reportable incidents collected over multiple years. The presenter said that while an increase appears evident when comparing the time facilities came online, the system does not currently tag "incoming correspondence" as a discrete category, meaning the commission cannot cite an exact mail‑specific prevalence without additional work.
Commissioners raised concern that restricting mail might shift attempts to bring contraband through other channels such as visitation or staff, and staff acknowledged the commission had not yet done a formal comparison to show whether total contraband has fallen or merely shifted mode. The exchange concluded with staff noting that facilities must continue vigilance in other admission and visitation processes even if mail scanning reduces one route.
