3 people charged after death of federal prison worker who opened fentanyl-laced mail

A federal prison inmate and two other people were charged Tuesday with conspiring to mail drugs to a penitentiary in California where a mailroom supervisor died this month after opening a letter that prosecutors said was laced with fentanyl and other substances.

According to prosecutors, Jamar Jones, a prisoner at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, California, plotted with Stephanie Ferreira, of Evansville, Indiana, and Jermen Rudd III of Wentzville, Missouri, to send him drugs that he could sell at the prison. They disguised the shipment as “legal mail” from a law office, investigators said.

The penitentiary’s mailroom supervisor, Marc Fischer, fell ill on Aug. 9 after opening a letter addressed to Jones that contained multiple pages that appeared to be “soaked,” or coated with drugs, according to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with the charges.

Within five minutes, according to the affidavit, Fischer started to stumble around and asked for medical help, telling a colleague: “I don’t feel good, it’s going up my arm.” He was taken to a hospital and died two hours later.

Fischer’s cause of death remains undetermined pending toxicology reports, the affidavit said.

Briefly touching fentanyl cannot cause an overdose, and researchers have found that the risk of fatal overdose from accidental exposure is low.

There was no attorney listed in court papers for Jones, who expected to appear in court on the charges next week in Fresno. A number listed in public records for Ferreira did not have voicemail set up. No working phone numbers could be immediately found for Rudd.

Fischer’s death is the latest serious incident in the Bureau of Prisons, which operates 122 federal prisons and has faced myriad crises in recent years, from rampant sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct by staff to chronic understaffing, escapes and high-profile deaths.

In 2019, the agency began photocopying inmate letters and other mail at some federal correctional facilities across the country instead of delivering the original parcels, in an attempt to combat the smuggling of synthetic narcotics.

Legislation was introduced by a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers in 2023 to require the Bureau of Prisons’ director to develop a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other synthetic drugs sent through the mail to federal prisons nationwide. The bill has stalled in the House.

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