Pinckneyville Correctional Center is pictured in southern Illinois. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Andrew Campbell)
PINCKNEYVILLE, Ill. (WSIL) — Six inmates at Pinckneyville Correctional Center received treatment after a suspected drug exposure over the weekend. This incident is raising alarms about ongoing issues in Illinois prisons.
Illinois State Sen. Terri Bryant said this is not an isolated event, noting repeated staff assaults and rising incidents across the state.
Bryant said the Department of Corrections did not inform lawmakers about the latest incident. Instead, a staff member alerted them.
"This came from a staff member… that said… there are exposures every day," Bryant said. "And now it says that the warden at Pinckneyville is telling them not even to write them up anymore because there are so many."
Bryant emphasized no staff were injured in this incident. However, it has renewed concerns about how drugs are entering Illinois prisons and what measures need to be implemented to stop them.
She highlighted a recent incident where a visitor at Dixon Correctional Center was caught smuggling two sheets of synthetic cannabinoids in their shoes. Bryant also pointed out the increasing presence of violence and weapons at facilities statewide.
“So I’ve wanted to attack this from the beginning by first starting with scanning the mail, and now we have to crack down on some of these other issues,” Bryant said.
Bryant said scanning inmate mail has significantly reduced contraband in some prisons by nearly half. She insisted that urgent next steps include bolstering security at facility entrances.
“Which is making sure that all entrances and exits to the facilities are manned properly. And all of the security protocols are followed to the letter of the law. And then thirdly, that we prosecute anyone to the fullest extent of the law or to the fullest extent of what is allowed within the facilities,” Bryant said.
She also mentioned that medical and correctional staff are dealing with so many suspected drug exposures that medical codes are no longer called. Nurses move from unit to unit assuming another exposure is occurring.
Bryant said the substance involved in the latest exposure hasn’t been officially identified, but she suspects synthetic cannabinoids are involved. These substances, she said, continue to cause overdoses and deaths statewide.
WSIL has reached out to the Illinois Department of Corrections and is awaiting their response.
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