By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – Prisons are dangerous places, and a group of senators says it doesn’t help that staff and inmates are exposed to deadly drugs.

Many Illinois prisons are in Downstate Republican districts, such as the one represented by State Sen. Sally Turner (R-Beason).

“These people are not just correctional officers,” Turner told a Capitol news conference Tuesday, “they are our neighbors, our friends, and our family. We know that stopping drugs through the mail won’t entirely eradicate drugs from getting into our facilities, but it will require a multi-pronged approach to it.

“There is no question that drugs are in fact coming in through the mail now.”

Turner said screening mail is the answer. 

State Sen. Terri Bryant (R-Murphysboro) said the answer is to get a new director and not confirm acting director Latoya Hughes, who succeeded the departed Rob Jeffreys. Bryant said Jeffreys is no longer with the state because he bucked the system, adding there is a massive cover-up with the governor atop it.

Fentanyl, sometimes combined with roach spray to mask it, can be smoked. State Sen. Chapin Rose (R-Mahomet) says he smelled the smoke for himself during an afternoon prison tour, adding a guard told him to come back at night; it’s like “Purple Haze.”

Dave Dahl can be reached at [email protected].