The mailroom supervisor at a federal prison in Atwater died Friday, as a result of exposure to mail saturated with an unknown substance. A second worker was also exposed and hospitalized, but released after observation.
Investigators are investigating whether the substance was fentanyl, according to the Associated Press.
A spokeswoman for the US Bureau of Prisons, Kristie Breshears, director of communications, confirmed an investigation was underway, but declined to disclose details.
The jail, located in Merced County, has temporarily suspended visitation.
Atwater is a maximum security federal prison for men. It also includes a minimum security satellite camp. According to the prison’s website, there are 1,225 inmates on its campus — 1,086 are in the prison and 139 in the camp.
Marc Fischer, the mailroom supervisor, “began to feel bad” after being exposed to a piece of mail, according to Breshears. “Despite the quick response of local emergency medical services, the employee was tragically pronounced dead on arrival at the local hospital.”
Researchers say that short-term exposure to fentanyl cannot cause an overdose, and the risk of death from accidental exposure is low.
Fischer’s death comes at a time when the Bureau of Prisons, which runs 122 federal prisons across the country, is under the spotlight of a series of crises including sexual abuse and other criminal misconduct by staff, prisoner escapes and several high-profile deaths.
According to the Associated Press, in 2019 the agency began photocopying mail arriving at prisons instead of delivering the original packages to inmates, in an effort to combat the smuggling of synthetic narcotics.
Year 2023, legislation was introduced it would have required the agency’s director to develop a strategy to prevent fentanyl and other synthetic drugs from being mailed to federal prisons.
The bill has stalled in the House.
“Our hearts are heavy as we extend our deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of our fallen agency employee,” Breshears said in the statement.
A call to the prison went unanswered.