Mail in the jail isn’t always what it seems.
What appears to be a harmless letter from a friend has the potential to contain cleverly concealed contraband, according to Sheriff Stacy Jarrard.
“A lot of jails in the state of Georgia are getting mail sent to them that’s laced with drugs,” he said. “And people are OD-ing in the cells.”
It’s a trend that’s getting harder and harder to detect due to some inventive ways of attaching the drug to paper that can range from letters dipped in the liquid form of methamphetamine to marijuana cooked down to sheets of wax.
LCSO Captain Marcus Sewell said one popular method is to hide fentanyl patches in the spot where the letter is sealed. If a letter opener is used, a jailer can be none the wiser.
“They’ll put it under the seal and they might not see it,” he said. “The stuff they make now with drugs is crazy.”
This, said Jarrard, is why the Lumpkin County Detention Center is turning to a new method of letter distribution. And it won’t include actual letters at all.
“We’re working with a company that will take the mail and switch it to emails,” he said.
That company is Legacy Commissary Services, which also provides vending services for the jail.
Now mail sent to the jail will be routed though the company where it will be opened by a gloved attendant, scanned and forwarded to the detention center kiosk, which is open to inmates at certain times of the day.
“The way they’re doing it is nobody will actually touch the mail so they can’t get drugs in their system,” said Jarrard.
The company, which is owned by Derek Strickland, is reportedly providing this service free of charge since it’s a trial run for the program.
“This feature does not cost the family member, the inmate or the Sheriff’s Office one penny,” Strickland said in a recent video release by the LCSO. ”It’s a service we provide free of charge.”
Jarrard said once an inmate is released their actual mail will be waiting for them on the other side.
“When they get out of jail they can actually get out and retrieve that mail,” he said. “Nobody is touching it.”
This, Jarrard said, should eliminate the potential for future mail mishaps.
“It’s all about keeping the jailers safe and the inmates safe,” he said.
