THOMSON, Ill. — An exposure to a synthetic drug in the mail on Thursday, Nov. 3 was the third time a USP Thomson staff member has been exposed to harmful drugs via mail in 2022.
A nurse was handling inmate mail when her hands, feet and face went numb, said Jon Zumkehr, the president of AFGE Local 4070 Union. She was given treated for the exposure at the prison and then released.
There were similar mailroom drug exposure incidents in March and April earlier this year, resulting in the hospitalization of three workers.
Following the drug mailroom exposure in March, Zumkehr told News 8, the union requested the federal government provide Thomson with drug detection equipment for the mailroom and for Thomson to switch to a different system called "mail guard."
Now, the union is renewing calls for those better protections for staff and inmates.
"We're concerned about the staff safety," Zumkehr said. "Staff members shouldn't have to die for the Bureau of Prisons to actually implement changes."
Currently, all mail is sent to and sorted directly in USP Thomson. Under the mail guard system, mail would be sent to a third party site that Zumkehr said would be prepared for potential drug exposures.
"It's in an enclosed location, so that way, if there is an exposure, it's kept in there," he said. "They'll scan the mail... it'll get emailed to the institution and the institution will pass it out to the inmate. That way, there's no possibility of drugs coming into the institution."
He added that Congress has had "multiple meetings about it, and it's moving forward."
"They have to look at all the data and then see what it would cost for the whole (Federal Bureau of Prisons), and what it would cost for the whole bureau would be about $45 million," Zumkehr said. "There should not be a price tag on our life. We should be doing everything possible to protect the staff and inmates at the prison. And if we can pay $45 million for the whole bureau to keep drugs out of the prison, I think that's a small price to pay."
The national AFGE Council of Prison Locals union president, Shane Fausey, is also asking Congress for help to fund the mail guard system at every federal penitentiary in the country. His statement to Congress reads in part:
"The Council of Prison Locals supported a Pilot Program that has mail going through an off-site screening facility. Mail is scanned and the inmates receive a copy of the original piece of mail, keeping any substance from entering the facility. The funding used for this pilot program has been exhausted and the Bureau of Prisons will be ending its use. This is an urgent matter. It is imperative to immediately fund this program as it was successful, has saved countless lives, prevented and stopped the mass introduction of illicit narcotics from entering our federal prisons, but cannot be continued or expanded due to a budgetary shortfall."
Zumkehr also stressed a need for additional staff at the facility, saying that the prison currently has 112 open positions, 94 of those positions are for correctional officers.
In September 2021, after nearly two years of lobbying lawmakers and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, Local 4070 successfully negotiated for a 25% retention bonus for its staff. It's also offering a $11,000 signing bonus and accelerated promotions with pay raises.
USP Thomson is currently still under investigation following an NPR and Marshall Project report that calls Thomson one of the "deadliest federal prisons in the country." The report also includes allegations of staff abuse from the families of inmates who died while in custody at Thomson.
Zumkehr couldn't comment much on the investigation, but said a team will be there for about six months doing a review that includes a review of all managers to see if they're competent.