A sign for FCI Ray Brook is seen here in January 2024. (Enterprise photo — Aaron Marbone)

RAY BROOK — On Tuesday, a staff member working in the mail room at the federal prison in Ray Brook was exposed to an unknown substance in a magazine and was hospitalized.

Union leaders at the medium-security FCI Ray Brook say they also are seeing increased contraband deliveries by drones, including one which crashed in the recreation yard on Tuesday. Tuesday’s hospitalization and other incidents with contraband have caused union leaders to push for increased protections and investments in safety.

At the same time, the facility is preparing for an increase to its inmate population as federal prisons take in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detainees.

Jennifer Rockhill, president of AFGE Local 3882, the union representing FCI Ray Brook’s corrections officers, said on Wednesday that the exposed staff member is doing “OK,” and is now home after being released from Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, but still feeling side-effects.

“He started to feel really weird. He started to feel sick,” Rockhill said. “He had the knowledge to Narcan himself, and then on the way to the hospital he was Narcaned two more times.”

A hazmat crew was called in to decontaminate the mail room.

“No illegal or harmful substance was located, and the area was deemed safe,” BOP spokesperson Emery Nelson wrote in an email to the Enterprise.

Last month, 20 staff at Upstate Correctional Facility in Malone were hospitalized after being exposed to an unknown substance, and a separate exposure sent at least four staff there to the hospital.

“We’ve been saying for months, and you saw with Upstate, we have a problem,” Rockhill said.

She’s worried it will get worse before anything is done.

Also on Tuesday, union Vice President Chuck Haywood said a drone carrying a package of drugs by a fishing line crash-landed in the recreation yard.

In January 2024, a drone package found in the yard put the facility on lockdown. This has become much more commonplace over the past year.

“Too many to count now,” Haywood said.

He and union Treasurer James Davis said they’ve personally seen drones fly in and drop packages.

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Union requests

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Union leaders at FCI Ray Brook are pushing for inmate mail to be digitized. Rockhill said inmates have digital tablets for magazines, newspapers, legal work and other correspondence. A union leader who asked to remain anonymous for fear of retribution said they feel the inmates get too much physical mail and that most can be digitized to reduce the chances of one containing contraband.

When mail is suspected of being tampered with, it gets tested. But otherwise, there’s not enough money to test everything, Rockhill said.

After a staff member at a California federal prison died after being exposed to an unknown substance last August, Rockhill said staff got thicker gloves to handle mail with. She said they need a lot more than that. It takes money.

“That’s what makes the world go round,” Haywood said.

Rockhill said a machine that could test all mail costs $14,000. It’s a lot, but she said it’s an investment in staff safety.

She said she’s spoken with North Country Rep. Elise Stefanik about the union’s concerns, including the hospitalization on Tuesday, and that Stefanik’s advocated for them.

Union leaders also said inmates do not get charged with receiving drug deliveries. They said this should be charged as a federal crime.

“It may not deter all of them, but it would deter some of them,” Haywood said.

Staff were upset on Wednesday over what they see as a lack of communication about Tuesday’s incident. There was confusion and union leaders said they had to ask management questions and bring the answers back to the staff themselves.

Nelson wrote that “employees were updated and informed of the situation immediately.”

They were also upset that there was not an extended lockdown after the hospitalization. Davis said they asked the acting warden to go on lockdown but were told to continue normal operations.

“It makes people feel like the executive staff don’t have their backs,” Davis said.

He said he heard inmates say staff were surprised there was no lockdown.

Nelson linked to a BOP news release about increased narcotics interdiction, which includes expanded Narcan access and new correspondence rules which began in November.

Under the new rules, all general correspondence — including photos and greeting cards — are photocopied and inmates get the photocopies. All general correspondence must be on plain white paper and in a white envelope.

Correspondence containing glitter, stickers, lipstick, crayon or marker are rejected, as are letters sprayed with fragrances and stained correspondence.

Labels are not allowed except in cases of approved correspondence and labels from sanctioned publications.

Legal and special mail are vetted by the Special Investigative Services office for sender and recipient verification, and are opened in the presence of the inmate.

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ICE detainees

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Union leaders also said FCI Ray Brook is opening up two more housing units on the verge of getting at least 80 more inmates.

The federal Bureau of Prisons is shuffling around inmates to make room for thousands of immigrants detained by ICE in President Donald Trump’s push for mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.

Haywood said Ray Brook has been told they might house ICE detainees themselves.

“The FBOP will take all appropriate action to support our law enforcement partners to fulfill the policy objectives of the Trump administration, including immigration matters,” Nelson wrote.

Nelson was not able to verify if FCI Ray Brook will hold detainees for the Department of Homeland Security.

“For privacy, safety, and security reasons, we do not comment on the legal status of an individual, nor do we specify the legal status of individuals assigned to any particular facility,” Nelson wrote.

“That is going to hurt our staffing even more,” Haywood said. “We just don’t have the numbers for it.”

He said it will mean more mandated overtime for corrections officers and staff.

Mandated overtime is already common at the facility.

Rockhill said the anticipated 80 new inmates in the coming days will likely put the facility close to a prisoner population of 820. The anonymous union leader said this will put the facility over its population cap.

The prison has around 70 corrections officers currently.

Mandated overtime and the practice of pulling staff away from their jobs to do corrections work has been a complaint of the union for years now.

They say it puts stress on COs, who work days at a time and don’t get to see their families, and that when non-CO staff are made to do CO work, it means their jobs go undone. This in turn puts stress on the inmates, who receive fewer privileges and freedoms, and lose out on educational, counseling and case work opportunities.

The prison has been on lockdown, on and off, over the past year for several reasons — mostly inmate fights and drone deliveries.