By Brian Early
Foster’s Daily Democrat
DOVER, N.H. — It was the mail.
That’s how Strafford County Sheriff David Dubois believes illicit drugs entered the Strafford County House of Corrections, leading to five inmates overdosing on June 6.
How the drugs got past the jail’s mail internal inspection is not something the sheriff is willing to reveal yet, however.
“That’s one point I have to protect at this point,” Dubois said at a press conference with the Strafford County Board of Commissioners, County Attorney Tom Velardi and Capt. Chris Brackett, the acting superintendent at the county jail, about the overdose investigation.
Dubois said he is confident the drug that entered the facility was a non-opiate type drug, but he would not disclose the substance until it is confirmed by the state’s crime lab.
The jail had already curtailed mail in recent years, allowing mail only on plain white paper to be sent to inmates, as drugs can be hidden inside things like birthday cards.
Brackett revealed publicly for the first time the classification of the five inmates who overdosed. All were in the same unit that house about 70 men. The ones who overdosed were pre-trial inmates who have pending local and/or federal charges. Brackett said none of the overdoses occurred to inmates being held by the U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement.
On the morning of June 6, the Dover Fire Department responded to the jail for a report of suspected overdoses. Five inmates were treated, with three of the inmates transported to Wentworth-Douglass Hospital for treatment. All were released back to the jail that day.
Fire Chief Eric Hagman, who called the overdoses “serious,” credited the staff at the jail for working quickly and without their efforts, “there would have been fatalities.”
County officials have released few details about what led to the overdoses, saying that the incident remains an active, ongoing investigation.
Many questions remained unanswered after Thursday’s press conference.
While there have been no arrests made in connection the incident, Dubois said his department’s task force focusing on illicit drugs at the jail created after the overdoses have led to one inmate arrest with possible future arrests.
Jed Cameron, 39, of Wolfeboro, was charged on June 22 with three Class B felonies that allege he “knowingly and unlawfully deliver, procure to be delivered or have in his possession with intent to deliver to a prisoner ... a quantity of controlled drugs,” one count of possession of “a sublingual film consistent with buprenorphine ... with the intent to distribute” and one count of possession of the same drug.
Buprenorphine is an opioid-based drug classified federally as a Schedule III controlled drug, often used to treat opioid addiction.
Cameron was arraigned on June 23 and pleaded not guilty to the charges. His bail was set at $5,000 cash. Cameron is a pre-trial inmate at the jail with pending charges from 2016 in Strafford County Superior Court. How the drugs he allegedly possessed entered the facility was not revealed.
Jail officials took steps on June 12 to limit drugs entering the facility through the mail by banning all personal, non-legal mail. It was a program the Department of Corrections was already piloting with plans to implement later this year; however, after the overdoses, the county moved to implement the program sooner.
Bracket said during Thursday’s press conference that all inmates receive a computer tablet to view email sent to them and to respond to those messages. Those on the outside of the jail who want to communicate to inmates can purchase “links” to send messages. For 50 cents, a person can send a message and receive a reply from the inmate; each message can have a maximum of 2,000 characters, Brackett said. The cost of supplying the tablets and administering the system is covered by the supplier, Global Tel Link.
Brackett said the county does not receive any commission for the use of the software.
“It’s less expensive than mail,” Brackett said.
For those who don’t have a smartphone or a computer connected to the internet, Brackett suggested family and friends could use a local library computer to initiate messages to inmates.
“It is a concern,” Brackett said about family and friends of inmates who may not have immediate access to the internet. “However, we have a larger concern for the safety of those family members who are incarcerated. We want to make sure that we can eradicate a method in which contraband can come into the facility.”
Whether the elimination of personal mail is considered an infringement of constitutionally protected rights, Velardi said court cases around the country have varied. The goal is a balance of what is “going to keep people safe while not curtailing the reasonable rights of persons to communicate to persons on the outside through their personal mail.”
Inmates are still allowed to send outgoing personal mail.
Velardi made clear the challenges of illicit drugs at the jail are not unique to Strafford County. It’s a problem that facilities around the state and country face on a daily basis and has been around for decades.
“Our incarcerated persons want and are seeking drugs they were using on the outside,” Velardi said. “It’s extremely difficult to keep up with that demand. You have to understand how pervasive, not just the opioid crisis, but the addiction crisis is in the United States.
“People need to wake up and understand how serious this issue is,” Velardi added.
Brackett said the jail is consistently evaluating its policies and programs to see how they can keep out illicit substances.
“I don’t think it’s a reasonable expectation to say that we will eliminate drugs from getting into the facility,” Brackett said. “We will perpetually be chasing that ghost of finding new ways in which contraband can be introduced into the facility.”
According to Brackett, not counting the overdoses earlier this month, there have been two recorded overdoses at the jail over the past eight years.
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©2017 the Foster’s Daily Democrat (Dover, N.H.)