WASHINGTON – A worker at a federal prison in California has died and investigators are examining whether he was exposed to fentanyl shortly before his death, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
Marc Fisher, mailroom supervisor at the US Penitentiary in Atwater, Californiadied on Friday after reporting feeling ill earlier, the people said. They said he was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead later that night.
Investigators are examining whether he was exposed to a substance authorities believe to be fentanyl while examining mail in prison, the people said. The people were unable to publicly discuss details of the ongoing investigation and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.
The cause of Fisher’s death remained unknown Saturday, and it was unclear whether potential exposure may have contributed. Touching briefly on fentanyl cannot cause an overdoseand researchers discovered that the risk of fatal overdose of accidental exposure is low.
His death is the latest serious incident at the Bureau of Prisons, which runs 122 federal prisons and has faced numerous crises in recent years, since rampant sexual abuse and others criminal misconduct by employees for chronic lack of staff, escape and high profile deaths.
In 2019, the agency began photocopying inmate letters and other correspondence at some federal correctional facilities across the country, rather than delivering the original parcels, in an attempt to combat the smuggling of synthetic narcotics.
Legislation was introduced by a bipartisan group of congressional lawmakers in 2023 to require the director of the Bureau of Prisons to develop a strategy to interdict fentanyl and other synthetic drugs mailed to federal prisons across the country. The project is stalled in the Chamber.
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Sisak reported from New York.
