U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice

IN
SHORT

➡

T OWARD C RIMINAL J USTICE S OLUTIONS

NOV. 04

Drug Detection in Prison Mailrooms
THE PROBLEM	

The clang of a prison door slamming shut should sound the end to
a convicted drug user’s substance abuse career. In fact, however,
the use of illicit drugs by inmates is pervasive, despite the closed
and carefully supervised nature of prison living conditions. And
where a demand exists for illicit substances, so, too, does a
market—even behind bars. One of the most common points
of entry is the prison mailroom, where incoming envelopes and
packages are routinely inspected, sorted, and routed.1 Staff must
screen each item by hand for concealed substances—a daunting
task if one considers that, typically, several thousand items per
day pass through.

BACKGROUND	

The National Institute of Justice (NIJ) sponsored a study to deter­
mine whether commercially available drug detection systems, cur­
rently used in a variety of settings by the U.S. Customs Service, law
enforcement organizations, and correctional institutions, can work
successfully in prison mailrooms. NIJ partnered with the Depart­
ment of Defense’s Counterdrug Technology Development Program
Office to study mailroom operations, survey available detection
technologies, and evaluate those technologies for their potential
to improve mailroom drug screening.

Office of Justice Programs

■

Partnerships for Safer Communities

■

www.ojp.usdoj.gov

NCJ 205685

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THIS STUDY

The research team observed and analyzed the mailroom processes of the U.S.
Penitentiary in Leavenworth, Kansas. They then conducted a market survey to find suit­
able and available detection equipment. Next, at Thunder Mountain Evaluation Center
in Arizona, they performed a laboratory-based evaluation of several trace detection
instruments—desktop and handheld ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) and a chemical
reagent spray—and a bulk detection (x-ray) machine to determine, for each piece of
equipment shown below, the minimum detection limits for the six drugs of interest
(marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, ecstasy, and LSD).
Detection Class

Type of Equipment

Cost of Equipment

Trace

Desktop IMS

$40,000–45,000

Trace

Handheld IMS

$20,000–25,000

Trace

Chemical Spray

$200–500 per kit

Bulk

X-ray Machine

$60,000

The team also created a mock mailroom at Thunder Mountain to evaluate background
levels of substances within the postal system and the ability of each technology to
detect varying amounts of marijuana and cocaine concealed within mailing envelopes.

BOTTOM LINE	

Researchers found that:
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The x-ray system could find relatively small amounts of drugs in mail as long as
the substances were in a compacted form.

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In some cases, the trace detection systems had high false alarm rates, judged to
be the result of “spiked” mail contaminating clean mail during testing and of
improper adjustment of equipment alarm levels.

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Items mailed through the postal system do not pick up substantial amounts of
drug contamination.

Researchers concluded from the scenario evaluation that ion mobility spectrometry
is the technology most likely to enhance mailroom drug-screening effectiveness.

LIMITATIONS	

Most of the drugs chosen for investigation are difficult to handle and degrade easily
over time; thus, only cocaine and marijuana were used in the simulated mailroom
evaluation. However, researchers were able to use the initial laboratory-based evalua­
tion data to predict results for the four drugs not tested in the mailroom scenario. In
addition, the study only focused on the ability of a technology to detect the presence
of concealed drugs in the mail. It did not evaluate the speed and efficiency of the tech­
nologies, nor did it create or evaluate screening methods for large volumes of mail;
however, a followup evaluation of ion mobility spectrometers studied various tech­
niques for sampling the mail in batches to reduce overall screening time.

WHAT’S NEXT?	

IMS equipment is currently being evaluated in actual prison mailrooms to determine
its operational effectiveness and any impact it might have on workflow, staff accept­
ance, and training and maintenance requirements. The combination of technical data
and workflow impact results will be used to develop a strategy for using this technolo­
gy to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of drug screening in Federal, State, and
local prison mailrooms.
.

AUDIENCE	

Prison administrators, prison mailroom inspectors, corrections officers, and
policymakers.

FIND THIS
STUDY

The full report of the Mailroom Evaluation Scenario is available online at
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/grants/199048.pdf.
NOTE
1. See pages iii–vii in The Federal Bureau of Prisons’ Drug Interdiction Activities,
Report No. I–2003–002, U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General,
Evaluation and Inspections Division, January 2003.

For more information on drug detection in the criminal justice system, visit the National
Criminal Justice Reference Service and browse the topic “Drugs and Crime” at:
http://fulltextpubs.ncjrs.org/content/FullTextPubs.html
Also see the following NIJ publications:
Color Test Reagents/Kits for Preliminary Identification of Drugs of Abuse,
NIJ Standard 0604.01, July 2000
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/183258.pdf
Guide for the Selection of Drug Detectors for Law Enforcement Applications,
NIJ Guide 601–00, August 2000
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/183260.pdf

This document is not intended to create, does not create, and may not be relied upon to create any rights, substantive or procedural, enforceable at
law by any party in any matter civil or criminal. Opinions or points of view expressed in this document represent a consensus of the authors and do
not represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The products and manufacturers discussed in this document are pre­
sented for informational purposes only and do not constitute product approval or endorsement by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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U.S. Department of Justice
Office of Justice Programs
National Institute of Justice

*NCJ~205685*

Washington, DC 20531
Official Business
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Drug Detection in Prison Mailrooms

IN
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T OWARD C RIMINAL J USTICE S OLUTIONS

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