As part of the crackdown on drug smuggling, Minnesota prisons will no longer receive direct mail

ST. PAUL, Minn. — Minnesota prisons will no longer receive direct mail starting Nov. 1 after state officials announced another new relief step Stop illegal drug smuggling.

Instead, all out-of-state mail is redirected to a company that replicates the mail before sending it back to Minnesota.

“The price of inaction is actually risking people’s lives,” Minnesota Prison Commissioner Paul Schnell told WCCO Investigates. “We can focus our attention on areas other than mail, which takes up and eats up a tremendous amount of time.”

TextBehind, the company that processes the mail, already has contracts with corrections departments in six other states, including Wisconsin and Michigan.

The contract will cost Minnesota taxpayers about $540,000 a year, but Schnell said the cost is “a non-starter” considering how much money is currently spent scanning and reprinting mail on-site at just a few locations become.

“From the additional staff time to the expense of leasing the machines and toner, we knew this was a non-starter from a cost perspective and would potentially save us some resources in the end,” he said.

Starting in June, employees at Stillwater, Rush City and Faribault correctional facilities began sifting through, scanning and reprinting mail after investigators discovered portions of it legal and private mail tainted and contaminated with synthetic narcotics.

However, this incident in Stillwater occurred in September and resulted in a two-day lockdown. Nine employees were hospitalized.

“I think it's the right decision,” said Sgt. Staci Stone, one of the nine correctional officers sent to the hospital. “It’s just an extra step to protect ourselves, that’s what it means to me.”

Family and friends now address their mail to a PO box. A TextBehind spokesperson added that the company stores mail for at least 30 days before destroying it and then stores a digital copy for up to seven years.

The sender may request that the original shipment be returned.

According to the Minnesota Department of Corrections, there have been at least 70 cases of suspected overdoses in state prisons so far this year, most of them resulting in drug overdoses Lockdowns that frustrate inmates, staff and their families.

The DOC has emphasized that its Office of Special Investigations will continue to investigate the Stillwater incident and crack down on drug smuggling.