THOMSON, Ill. — The American Federation of Government Employees Local 4070 wants its union members employed at U.S. Penitentiary Thomson to be better protected in the mailroom.
Two officers working at USP Thomson were treated within three weeks of each other at a local hospital for possible drug exposures.
Union president Jon Zumkehr said one officer was sorting mail Tuesday in one of the prison housing units at Thomson when he was exposed to a suspicious substance.
Donald Murphy, Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesperson, later said that "institution specialists determined the substance was non-hazardous, and the area was deemed safe."
The other incident took place three weeks prior when another officer was hospitalized for synthetic drug exposure. Both workers are okay, according to Zumkehr.
He added that while drugs can be commonly found in the mail at some prisons, it has not been a common issue at Thomson.
"It definitely sends it to a different level that we have a staff go in the hospital because they're exposed to drugs," Zumkehr said. "We're just trying everything we can to prevent it."
He said it has requested the federal government provide Thomson with drug detection equipment for the mailroom. The union specifically wants an ion scanner, what is currently used at airports.
It also requested Thomson switch to a different system called "mail guard." Under this, all mail would be sent to a central site, photocopied and the photocopy would be what gets sent to Thomson for workers to sort and distribute.
"So if somebody had soaked the mail in drugs, we would never touch that because it would go to that central facility, and then we get a photocopy of that," Zumkehr said. "It would never actually be the actual mail piece that would come to us."
He added that these measures will make Thomson a safer place for both the staff and the inmates.
The prison has struggled with staffing issues and high turnover for years now.
Currently, it's short 75 positions in custody and 10 positions in medical. Zumkehr said this is a high amount for its medical department.
With understaffing, Zumkehr said its running into issues with mandated overtime to cover for the lack of workers.
"They take people out of their positions and put them in a different job, which we're all federal law enforcement officers, but if the Bureau of Prisons says that we need 100 officers to fill the prison and you take 20 away, we're 20 officers short which makes the prison less safe," he said.
Thomson currently houses 942 male inmates, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
One of those inmates, 35-year-old James Everett, was found unresponsive by staff at approximately 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and was later pronounced dead.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation was notified and no staff or other inmates were injured at the time, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Zumkehr was not able to comment on the inmate's death.
He did say that the union was doing everything it could to hire more staff. Last month, it had six job fairs.
"The union is trying to do everything possible to let people know we're hiring," Zumkehr said. "We also have the 25% retention bonus, the 25% recruitment bonus and we also are having an offer right now to pay for your moves and accelerated promotion. So we have all the tools that we fought for. Now we're just trying to educate people that we have those tools."
He added that the union has reached out to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) and Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Illinois) to explain the prison's needs.
"They've helped us so far and you know, I'm sure they're gonna help us again," Zumkehr said.