3rd-party mail scanning is coming to Minnesota's prisons after numerous drug incidents

In an effort to crack down on drugs and other contraband entering the state’s prisons, the Minnesota Department of Corrections is launching a new mail management system through a private, Maryland-based vendor.

The state’s new half-million dollar contract with TextBehind comes after a multi-day lockdown at the Stillwater prison facility in September where nine corrections employees were treated for exposure to synthetic marijuana, according to the corrections department.

While agency officials are still investigating the incident, they believe mail was soaked in K2 and then smoked inside the prison.

Commissioner Paul Schnell tells 5 INVESTIGATES his agency is seeing an uptick in similar cases — with an estimated two dozen workers being treated for drug exposure this year — and it required emergency action.

Currently, corrections employees are scanning incoming mail and producing copies for incarcerated people in some of the state’s facilities.

“This creates incredible efficiencies for us, and right now we’re spending considerable time and considerable money,” Schnell said. “In some instances, we were looking at toner costs at one facility alone touching almost $20,000 a month.

“So when we started to add, look at the business side of this, this vendor proposition, actually, we believe in the long haul, will save money, and really, absolutely makes it safer, because that mail is never coming into the facility,” he added.