By Brooke Adams
The Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Add pictures made with crayons and markers, and envelopes adorned with decorative stickers, to the list of banned items at state prisons in Utah.
Starting Friday, the Utah Department of Corrections no longer will allow inmates at the Utah State Prison in Draper or Central Utah Correctional Facility in Gunnison to receive those items because of concerns that they may conceal illegal drugs — primarily Suboxone, a drug used to treat opiate addiction that comes in a thin strip and can be turned into a paste.
Kerry Galetka, mail unit tech supervisor at the Utah State Prison, said mail room staff have found the orange-tinted strips in some incoming letters recently. And, while it hasn’t happened here yet, in some parts of the country inmates have received children’s drawings coated with the paste.
Numerous correctional facilities in other states have taken steps in recent years to block efforts to sneak the drug to inmates, such as banning letters containing crayon drawings, stickers and glitter glue, according to a New York Times story.
Utah inmates were informed about the new practice regarding markers, crayons and decorative stickers at the end of September.
Full story: Utah prison bans crayon and marker drawings to inmates