On today’s episode of The Confluence:
Psychostimulant Symposium brought stakeholders together to discuss rising use of methamphetamines and other stimulant drugs
(0:00 - 11:21)
Last week, the state Department of Drugs and Alcohol Programs co-hosted a two-day Psychostimulant Symposium to bring together public safety and public health providers to talk about prevention, treatment and harm reduction for those with drug use disorders.
“I think for many years we had an approach of locking people up [for illicit drug use] and we've kind of started shifting away from that mindset and really understanding more that sometimes the behavior that they're engaging in, which is causing the law enforcement involvement, is driven by the disease, the substance use disorder,” says Jen Smith, Secretary of the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs.
Smith says fentanyl is now present in a lot of the drug supply, so ensuring harm reduction tools like naloxone and test strips, which were decriminalized in the last legislative session, are readily available will help protect people.
Those incarcerated in Pennsylvania state prisons get scans of mail, mass incarceration researchers say this can cause disconnection
(11:33 - 18:30)
Letters sent from family or friends to people who are incarcerated in a Pennsylvania state correctional facility first must be mailed to Florida before being scanned. Then, a digital or printed scanned copy of the letter or card is given to the person incarcerated.
Pennsylvania state prisons started using mail scanning in 2018 in an attempt to dissuade drug-infused letters from being sent to inmates after a few dozen guards became sick from allegedly coming into contact with synthetic drugs.
“It is going to have a chilling effect on people's communications with family the harder you make it to communicate with them,” says Wanda Bertram with the Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit that researches mass incarceration, including the practice of mail scanning. “Most people who are in prison with a child, who are a parent of a minor child, use mail to keep in touch with that child. The DOC’s policy is preventing people from having that communication.”
Bertram says scans can significantly reduce the quality of photos or visuals in a card, and others have found they may even cut off parts of letters.
A spokesperson for the state Department of Corrections (DOC) declined to be interviewed, but answered questions for The Confluence via email.
They said in response to questions about quality of the scans that: “All mail printing services are reviewed by mailroom staff prior to delivery. Mail reprint is done locally at each facility, and any quality control issues are addressed immediately. This includes direct communication with the vendor if rescanning of an item is needed.”
Pennsylvania DOC’s contract for mail scanning services from Smart Communications was renewed in September and expires next year.
The Confluence, where the news comes together, is 90.5 WESA’s daily news program. Tune in Monday to Thursday at 9 a.m. and 7:30 p.m. to hear newsmakers and innovators take an in-depth look at stories important to the Pittsburgh region. Find more episodes of The Confluence here or wherever you get your podcasts.
