Mailroom Safety Standards for Courthouses

After the terrorist attacks of September 2001 and the anthrax contamination occurrences in federal mail-handling facilities in October 2001, the federal courts developed a new approach to achieve more rigorously controlled mailrooms. This enhanced approach was based on the central premise that all mail processing should occur in a centralized facility designed with the optimal physical features needed to control the spread of contaminated mail.

The resulting federal standards for mailrooms include procedural and location criteria and standards for physical components. In today’s security-sensitive environment, the precautions included in the federal standards have similar applicability to state and local court facilities. The procedural and location standards developed by the federal courts may be summarized as follows:

Mailroom Procedural Standards

All mail and packages should be screened by courthouse security staff and placed in sealed tubs for transport to the central mail facility.
Mail should be opened and sorted only in the mailroom.
All mail should be opened and sorted only by court staff.
Mailroom doors should be closed during mail opening and sorting procedures.
All suspicious mail should be identified and reported to courthouse security staff for handling.
Following screening, opening, and sorting, mail should be stamped “Screening Complete” and placed in mailboxes for pickup by recipients at or near the mailroom.

Mailroom Location Standards

The mailroom must serve as the centralized location for the entire building's mail opening and sorting functions.
The mailroom should be located adjacent to an exterior building wall with direct external access or close to where mail enters the building.
The mailroom should be located near a loading dock or remote secondary point of entry equipped with a magnetometer and x-ray equipment. Mail and packages should not be screened at the public entrance to the courthouse.

For reference, a summary of the standards for the physical components of a central mailroom follows:

Furnishings and Equipment Standards

Equipment should include an isolation tub and a wall-mounted fire extinguisher.
The room should have a telephone, an intercom system connected to the courthouse security staff office, and a duress alarm and CCTV camera directly related to the office.
The room should contain a wall-mounted cabinet for lab coats.
The number of mail sorters in the room should be based on the volume of mail specific to that courthouse.

Architectural Standards

Doors should have a glass vision panel, automatic closers, and seals at the edges.
Doors should have an access control system and electric door strike controls for emergency release.
Walls should be floor-to-slab and built with sealed or epoxy-painted water-resistant gypsum board.
The ceiling should be vinyl-faced acoustic tiles with hot-weld sealed joints.
Floors should be continuous sheet vinyl tile with a backing layer to inhibit germs and mold.
A flash-coat base should extend 6” up the drywall.
Built-in cabinetry should be made of materials that can withstand heavy cleaning for decontamination.

Mechanical (HVAC and Plumbing) Standards

The room should be served by a dedicated air handling unit for supplying air and a dedicated variable speed, continuously operating exhaust fan ducted to the highestexterior point of the building.
The exhaust system should incorporate a pre-filter, a HEPA filter, and a carbon absorption filter with controls that allow for a system shutdown due to contamination.
An emergency shower, wash sink, and eye wash station should be provided with a drain to an emergency holding tank.
A sprinkler system should be provided for the room.

This photo of a courthouse mailroom is an example of these mechanical features.

Electrical Standards

The exhaust fan, lighting, and all mailroom controls should be connected to the building’s emergency power system.
Light fixtures should be ceiling-mounted and sealed for easy cleaning following contamination.

Two mailrooms I recently toured contained nearly all the currently required physical features. They are shown in the following photos. In many ways, they resemble a laboratory clean room.

Although these standards are extensive and somewhat costly, they are relatively easy to accomplish in a newly constructed federal courthouse or when applied to a state or local courthouse. However, this differs from a mailroom upgrade project in an existing courthouse. How can court planning consultants find the right location or accomplish the required architectural and engineering improvements? In truth, this is a challenging task.

In our next blog, I will suggest how an upgraded mailroom might be accomplished in an existing courthouse.

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