Michigan’s prison system is preparing for a major shift in how incarcerated people receive legal mail.
The Michigan Department of Corrections (MDOC) announced this week that it will begin treating all confidential legal documents the same as standard mail starting January 5, citing an increase in synthetic drugs entering facilities through envelopes disguised as privileged material.
MDOC has long required that general mail be photocopied before reaching incarcerated people — a policy created to stem the flow of contraband and reduce staff exposure to drugs that can be absorbed through touch. Legal mail historically remained the exception. Those documents were delivered in their original form to protect attorney-client confidentiality, a core safeguard in both state and federal law.
MDOC says that exception is now fueling a pathway for newer, harder-to-detect substances.
Synthetic drugs have reshaped prison contraband trends across the country. The Bureau of Justice Statistics has documented a steady increase over the past decade in the presence of synthetic cannabinoids and other lab-made substances inside correctional facilities. These drugs often come into prisons through paper soaked in chemical sprays, something corrections systems in at least 18 states have publicly acknowledged.
Michigan officials say they are seeing the same pattern.
“Illicit drugs have fundamentally changed over recent years to include synthetic sprays and strips which are easily added to paper and concealed in mail,” MDOC Director Heidi Washington said in announcing the change. Washington said the department’s focus is staff and resident safety. “These drugs pose a great risk to our staff and those living in our facilities; this is a commonsense policy that will reduce the chance of sickness and death by those who come in contact with these substances.”
The new process will require staff to photocopy legal documents in the presence of the intended recipient. The original materials will then be immediately shredded to preserve confidentiality while preventing contraband from circulating inside facilities. MDOC says the system is designed to protect legal privacy while closing a documented loophole — though civil rights groups nationally have raised concerns in similar cases about access to original documents and the risk of misplacement or miscopying.
Contraband-related health emergencies remain a significant issue within U.S. prisons. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported elevated rates of overdose deaths and drug-related medical incidents in correctional settings, tied in part to the rise of synthetic substances that are potent in small amounts and difficult to detect. In Michigan, MDOC disciplinary records show hundreds of drug-related violations each year across the system’s 26 facilities.
The department maintains that photocopying all mail — including legal mail — has become necessary to match the evolution of those substances. The policy mirrors steps taken by correctional systems in Pennsylvania, Missouri, and Iowa in recent years after their own investigations traced synthetic-drug exposure back to paper-based mail.
MDOC says the January 5 shift is part of a broader effort to reduce contraband, improve staff safety, and limit overdose risks inside facilities. The department has not announced whether it plans to track the effectiveness of the new policy or issue periodic public reports on reductions in drug-related incidents under the new protocol.
What remains clear is that the policy represents an expansion of security measures shaped by the growing presence of synthetic drugs in correctional spaces, raising ongoing questions about how Michigan balances safety, due process, and communication rights for the nearly 32,000 people currently incarcerated in its prisons.
