Audio Transcript

Mollie Halpern: The FBI is developing proactive measures to prevent prisoners from sending white-powder letters. The envelopes come with a threat that there is a biological agent inside.

Robert Miranda: It’s really no different than somebody threatening to use a gun or a bomb.

Halpern: I’m Mollie Halpern of the Bureau, and this is FBI, This Week. About 25 percent of white-powder letters are sent from behind bars. A study shows that inmates in state and local correctional facilities believe by sending the letters that they’ll be transferred to federal institutions. Robert Miranda, assistant section chief in the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate, says that’s not true.

Miranda: All it will probably do is get you extended in your current prison. So we’ve got to change that perception, that there’s any sort of benefit that can be accrued by this crime.

Halpern: The FBI is leveraging technology and working closer with the postal service to better identify the perpetrators.

Miranda: One path is to work with the prison systems to educate them on the effects of these crimes and maybe some prevention methods.

Halpern: For more information, visit www.fbi.gov.