Marquette County Jail to end postal services for inmates

MARQUETTE — Tuesday night the Marquette County Commission approved the purchase of a body scanning machine for the jail to help prevent drugs and weapons from getting into the facility, but that’s not the only step that is being taken to help. Starting on December 1st of this year, inmates in the Marquette County jail will no longer be able to receive mail from people other than their attorney.

The step is just one in a series of several that have been implemented at the facility to keep both the inmates and guards safe. Along with the incoming body scanner and the video conference system, the halting of mail service should help stop drugs from getting to the inmates.

“There’s problems with mail. What we’ve found is people are soaking drugs up into the paper, and once the inmates get the paper, they dip it in water and they can get that drug,” said Sheriff Greg Zyburt. “They can ingest it and become high, be it LSD, or you know, there’s all sorts of ways to get it, so with the mail that has stopped that also.”

Another way to communicate with the inmates is through an e–messaging service that the sheriff’s department has been using in the past.

To read about the body scanning machine that will be purchased for the jail, click here.

To read about the implimentation of the video conference system at the jail, click here.

EDIT: In an earlier version of the story, we stated that the inmates would not be able to send mail and that is incorrect.