Nearly 20 PESH Citations Spanning two Central New York Correctional Facilities Issued
NYS Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Directed to Enhance Safety Precautions in Facility Package Rooms
Findings Support State-Implemented Secure Vendor and Mail Photocopying Programs to Decrease Exposure Staff to Dangerous Drugs
Albany, NY – The New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association, Inc. (NYSCOPBA) is reacting to recent findings of an investigation by the New York State Labor Department (DOL), which found unsafe working conditions created by significant exposure to illicit drugs. Staff discovered fentanyl while searching incoming incarcerated individual mail and packages for contraband in two Central New York-area correctional facilities. Incarcerated individual mail and packages often comes from friends and family members of the inmates. This investigation was prompted by NYSCOPBA filing a Public Employee Safety and Health (PESH) complaint with DOL after several incidents of serious fentanyl exposure on staff in the summer of 2021. FULL PRESS RELEASE