119-hr1046

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1046 Introduced in House

    (IH) ]

<DOC>

119th CONGRESS
 1st Session
 H. R. 1046

 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

 February 6, 2025

 Mr. Bacon (for himself, Mr. Horsford, Mr. Moore of Alabama, Mr. 
 Moskowitz, Mrs. Miller of West Virginia, Mr. Pappas, Mr. Weber of 
 Texas, 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 ``Marc Fischer Memorial Interdiction 
of Fentanyl in Postal Mail at Federal Prisons Act'' or the ``Marc 
Fischer Memorial 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 and 
 technology;

    (2) Federal correctional facilities' use of technology 
 services 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; and

    (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) .
            (d) Implementation Deadline.--Not later than 3 years after the date 
on which the plan is submitted under subsection

    (a)

    (2) , 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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