Jail Authorities Find Drugs in Privileged Mail

Correctional authorities say they are cutting off efforts to smuggle drugs to inmates inside mail that appears to come from their lawyers. Known as privileged mail, it gets special protection to preserve attorney-client confidentiality. They’ve stopped several attempts to use those privacy privileges in mailings that hide drugs within fabricated or stolen stationery from law firms. A new, continuously changing alphanumeric code allows the state’s prisons and jails to identify legitimate privileged legal mail and to flag contraband. West Virginia’s Public Defender Services developed the coding system.