Three people charged in death of federal prison employee who opened mail laced with fentanyl

(AP) – A federal prison inmate and two others were charged Tuesday with conspiring to ship drugs to a California prison where the mailroom manager died this month after opening a letter that prosecutors said was laced with fentanyl and other substances.

Prosecutors say Jamar Jones, an inmate 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 in prison. They disguised the shipment as “legal mail” from a law firm, investigators said.

Prison mail manager Marc Fischer became ill on Aug. 9 after opening a letter addressed to Jones that contained several pages that appeared to be “soaked,” or coated in drugs, according to an FBI affidavit filed in connection with the indictment.

According to the affidavit, within five minutes Fischer began stumbling around and begging for medical attention, telling a coworker, “I'm not feeling well, it's spreading in my arm.” He was taken to a hospital and died two hours later.

The cause of Fischer's death is still unclear pending toxicological reports, the affidavit states.

Brief contact with fentanyl cannot cause an overdose, and researchers have found that the risk of a fatal overdose from accidental contact is low.

Court records did not list an attorney for Jones, who is scheduled to appear in court on the charges next week in Fresno. A number listed in public records for Ferreira did not have a voicemail set up. No working phone numbers could be found for Rudd.

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

In 2019, the agency began photocopying letters and other mail from inmates at some federal prisons across the country instead of delivering the original packages in an effort to combat the smuggling of synthetic narcotics.

A bipartisan group of members of Congress introduced a bill in 2023 that would require the director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop a strategy to seize fentanyl and other synthetic drugs sent through the mail to federal prisons across the country. The bill has stalled in the House.

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