Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, speaks during a news conference earlier this year.

A Republican state senator is proposing legislation aimed at decreasing drug smuggling through mail marked as “legal.”

Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, recently introduced S.8942, a bill that would require all legal mail to be sent electronically to those in state prisons. Stec said synthetic drugs are traveling into correctional facilities under the ruse of being constitutionally protected legal mail. Through the use of a fictitious law firm on an address label, paper soaked in chemicals and/or synthetic drugs are able to bypass mail scanners and make their way into prisons.

Stec’s legislation would require law firms to enter a state registry and electronically send all correspondence to their incarcerated clients through a secure portal system. Incarcerated individuals can then access these materials via the taxpayer-funded tablets they can access.

Clinton Correctional Facility has seen an increase in staff exposures to unidentified substances this year, including an early August incident that sent six corrections officers and a nurse to the hospital after they were exposed to an unknown substance. Stec visited the prison after the incident before proposing his legislation.

News reports from NBC5 and the Plattsburgh Press-Republican in August reported there had been 80 chemical exposures in the prison over the course of a month while the Press-Republican reported facilities throughout the state have had similar incidents. The information, Stec said, was released as part of a state DOCCS response to a lawsuit filed over the use of the HALT Act, another sticking point for striking corrections officers earlier this year.

“I’ve heard repeatedly from correction officers and facility officials that abuse of legal mail has been a major source of contraband inside correctional facilities,” Stec said in a news release. “While all citizens have a right to an attorney and attorney-client privilege, no one has the right to abuse it in order to smuggle drugs and deadly chemicals. My bill would make an immediate impact on prison safety without impinging on constitutionally granted legal protections. Secure electronic correspondence and a law firm registry would prevent incarcerated individuals from using fictitious law firms to smuggle drugs through the mail.”

The mail isn’t the only way contraband materials are entering state prisons. On August 1, the New York State Police responded to Collins Correctional Facility in Erie County following a request from the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision Office of Special Investigations (OSI), after a National Guard service member was found in possession of contraband while attempting to enter the facility. Savian M. Maxwell, age 30, of Brooklyn, NY, a member of the New York Army National Guard, was taken into custody by DOCCS OSI investigators after an agency K9 alerted to both his vehicle and person during a security screening. A subsequent search resulted in the seizure of approximately 176.4 grams of marijuana and four cell phones.

National Guard members have been paid by the state to help secure state prisons after strikes earlier this year in several prisons throughout the state. Sen. George Borrello, R-Sunset Bay, earlier this year spoke out against the use of National Guard troops in prisons, opposing the cost to station the guard in prisons and pushing Gov. Kathy Hochul to rehire the more than 2,000 corrections officers who didn’t return to work before the state’s deadline to end the strikes earlier this year.

In February, Borrello issued a formal letter to Hochul demanding an immediate halt to the deployment of 6,500 National Guard members in New York’s prisons and calling on Hochul to negotiate in good faith with striking correction officers. In his letter, Senator Borrello cited reports from National Guard members and their families, who describe inhumane conditions, lack of proper safety protocols, and dangerously inadequate training.