I 
119TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 1046 
To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop and implement 
a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other synthetic drugs in the mail 
at Federal correctional facilities. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 6, 2025 
Mr. BACON (for himself, Mr. HORSFORD, Mr. MOORE of Alabama, Mr. 
MOSKOWITZ, Mrs. MILLER of West Virginia, Mr. PAPPAS, Mr. WEBER 
of Texas, and Mr. CUELLAR) introduced the following bill; which was re-
ferred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To require the Director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop 
and implement a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other 
synthetic drugs in the mail at Federal correctional facili-
ties. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Marc Fischer Memorial 
Interdiction of Fentanyl in Postal Mail at Federal Prisons 
Act’’ or the ‘‘Marc Fischer Memorial Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 
Congress finds the following: 
(1) The Bureau of Prisons has 122 institutions 
located throughout the United States, employs near-
ly 38,000 employees, and is responsible for more 
than 150,000 Federal inmates. 
(2) Inmate mail is a primary entry point for 
smuggling drugs into correctional facilities, with 
tainted mail incidents also on the rise. 
(3) Elimination of dangerous contraband, in-
cluding synthetic drugs, in mail is essential to pro-
tecting the health and safety of employees of the Bu-
reau of Prisons and Federal inmates. 
(4) Prisons in the United States are increas-
ingly deadly facilities, with a 600 percent rise in 
drug overdoses in recent years. 
(5) The introduction of synthetic drugs, par-
ticularly fentanyl and fentanyl analogues, into cor-
rectional facilities by mail threatens employees, in-
mates, and the security of correctional institutions, 
and the practice of deliberately lacing opioids to en-
sure targeted lethality represents a dramatic emerg-
ing concern. 
(6) The foregoing factors add tremendous pres-
sures and workload that further burden existing em-
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ployees, commonly reassigning officers from other 
functions to assist in processing mail. 
(7) Employees at correctional facilities at Fed-
eral, State, and local levels continue to request drug 
interdiction technologies to protect themselves and 
inmates. 
(8) A congressionally authorized digital mail 
scanning pilot program at the Federal Correctional 
Institution, Beckley, West Virginia, and the United 
States Penitentiary, Canaan, Pennsylvania, from 
March 2020 through June 2021, demonstrated ef-
fective interdiction technology and practices aimed 
at 
eliminating 
dangerous 
contraband 
arriving 
through the mail and served as an effective deter-
rent to smuggling attempts. 
(9) Apart from digital mail scanning, there is 
no widely deployed interdiction technology that has 
demonstrated a 100 percent efficacy to detecting 
fentanyl, and other synthetic drugs, arriving through 
the mail at Bureau of Prisons facilities. 
(10) Removing mail processing from Federal 
prisons and relieving Bureau of Prisons employees 
from mail sorting duties will result in an extensive 
budgetary relief to the Bureau and decrease the 
staffing shortages facing prisons. 
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SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS. 
In this Act: 
(1) The term ‘‘opioid’’ has the meaning given 
such term in section 102 of the Controlled Sub-
stances Act (21 U.S.C. 802). 
(2) The term ‘‘synthetic drug’’ means a con-
trolled substance analogue (as such term is defined 
in section 102 of the Controlled Substances Act (21 
U.S.C. 802), and includes any analogue of fentanyl. 
SEC. 4. STRATEGY TO INTERDICT SYNTHETIC DRUGS IN 
POSTAL MAIL. 
(a) EVALUATION.—Not later than 180 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Director of the Bureau 
of Prisons (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Director’’) shall 
evaluate— 
(1) Federal correctional facilities’ acquisition 
and deployment of synthetic drug interdiction equip-
ment and technology; 
(2) Federal correctional facilities’ use of tech-
nology services to scan mail; and 
(3) whether any technologies used by other 
Federal agencies or State and local corrections facili-
ties to intercept and interdict contraband in the mail 
may be used by the Bureau of Prisons. 
(b) STRATEGY.—Not later than 90 days after com-
pleting the evaluation under subsection (a), the Director 
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shall submit to the Committee on the Judiciary of the Sen-
ate and the Committee on the Judiciary of the House of 
Representatives a strategy to provide all Federal correc-
tional facilities with capabilities necessary to— 
(1) protect staff and inmates from exposure to 
synthetic drugs and opioids introduced to facilities 
through the mail; 
(2) ensure that— 
(A) not later than 24 hours after a piece 
of mail is received at a Federal corrections fa-
cility or an appropriately contracted offsite loca-
tion, each inmate receives a digital copy of any 
mail that is addressed to the inmate; 
(B) not later than 30 days after receiving 
a digital copy of a piece of mail under subpara-
graph (A), the inmate receives the original 
physical copy of any mail that— 
(i) does not contain synthetic drugs or 
opioids; and 
(ii) is addressed to the inmate; and 
(C) delivery to the inmate under subpara-
graphs (A) and (B) is documented; 
(3) ensure that a process is in place for the 
processing of legal mail that includes— 
(A) the verification of the sender; and 
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(B) maintains attorney client privilege as 
required by existing law; and 
(4) achieve 100 percent scanning capacity of 
mail arriving at all Federal correction facilities. 
(c) CONTENTS.—The strategy required under sub-
section (b) shall— 
(1) identify critical information technology, dig-
ital mail scanning equipment, and mail scanning 
services necessary to achieve the scanning capacity 
described in subsection (b)(4); 
(2) include an assessment of operational and 
logistical considerations, including— 
(A) prioritization of high security and 
large inmate population facilities for digital 
mail scanning infrastructure and security tech-
nology deployment; 
(B) any need for additional personnel and 
technology training necessary to implement the 
strategy; and 
(C) scanning equipment maintenance re-
quirements and periodic digital technology up-
grades; and 
(3) include an equipment and technology budg-
etary proposal, for fiscal years 2025 though 2027, in 
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order to fully implement the strategy described 
under subsection (b). 
(d) IMPLEMENTATION DEADLINE.—Not later than 3 
years after the date on which the plan is submitted under 
subsection (a)(2), and subject to appropriations, the Di-
rector of the Bureau of Prisons shall complete implemen-
tation of the submitted plan. 
(e) ANNUAL PROGRESS REPORTS.—Beginning 1 year 
after the date on which the strategy is submitted under 
subsection (b), and each year thereafter, the Director of 
the Bureau of Prisons shall submit to the Committee on 
the Judiciary of the Senate and the Committee on the Ju-
diciary of the House of Representatives a report on the 
efficiency of the strategy and the total quantity of detected 
synthetic drugs and opioids. 
Æ 
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