KCJ Adds New Tool In Battle To Stop Contraband
September 21, 2018 at 4:53 p.m.
KCJ Adds New Tool In Battle To Stop Contraband
By Mark [email protected]
The jail added a B-SCAN FB full-body scanner that takes low-level X-rays, revealing anything an incoming prisoner might try to smuggle into the jail.
Sheriff Rocky Goshert and his staff showed the scanner to media and law enforcement leaders from Cass and Fulton counties after jail staff had completed 2½ days of training on the machine.
Goshert cited a recent example as proof the scanner is needed.
“We recently transferred someone in from Miami Correctional, and we needed to do a strip search,” the sheriff said. “A syringe was found in the lower end, between his (glutes).
“Now we don’t have many volunteers to conduct body-cavity searches, and it’s certainly understandable why. With the scanner, that won’t be necessary.”
Peter Wallace of Smiths Detection, the manufacturer of the machine, said it works in a similar manner to machines at airport security checkpoints and to check baggage.
With the new scanner, a person stands sideways on a conveyor belt with his head turned to the left. The X-ray is taken with thousands of small doses of radiation and assembled into a picture by a computer.
Unlike X-ray technicians in medical applications, which give one large dose of radiation, operators at the jail won’t need to wear lead aprons as protection.
Wallace said any one inmate can be scanned up to 125 times at one facility, and if need be an inmate can be taken to another jail with a scanner to be rechecked.
Kosciusko Sheriff’s Deputy Mick Mulligan said the department is still working on many of the protocols, and many policies in the future will be decided by case law. He said no fewer than two jailers will be in the room while an inmate is scanned.
Mulligan said that there won’t be any privacy issues, and everyone on the jail staff will be trained so no one has to wait for a shift change to be scanned. Gender issues will not be considered when deciding who conducts a scan.
“We’re still developing what will be our (standard operating procedures) and there is the potential it’ll be fluid for a while,” Mulligan said. “The goal is to make scanning a part of the standard booking process.”
The scanner is expected to be in full-time use next week.
The jail added a B-SCAN FB full-body scanner that takes low-level X-rays, revealing anything an incoming prisoner might try to smuggle into the jail.
Sheriff Rocky Goshert and his staff showed the scanner to media and law enforcement leaders from Cass and Fulton counties after jail staff had completed 2½ days of training on the machine.
Goshert cited a recent example as proof the scanner is needed.
“We recently transferred someone in from Miami Correctional, and we needed to do a strip search,” the sheriff said. “A syringe was found in the lower end, between his (glutes).
“Now we don’t have many volunteers to conduct body-cavity searches, and it’s certainly understandable why. With the scanner, that won’t be necessary.”
Peter Wallace of Smiths Detection, the manufacturer of the machine, said it works in a similar manner to machines at airport security checkpoints and to check baggage.
With the new scanner, a person stands sideways on a conveyor belt with his head turned to the left. The X-ray is taken with thousands of small doses of radiation and assembled into a picture by a computer.
Unlike X-ray technicians in medical applications, which give one large dose of radiation, operators at the jail won’t need to wear lead aprons as protection.
Wallace said any one inmate can be scanned up to 125 times at one facility, and if need be an inmate can be taken to another jail with a scanner to be rechecked.
Kosciusko Sheriff’s Deputy Mick Mulligan said the department is still working on many of the protocols, and many policies in the future will be decided by case law. He said no fewer than two jailers will be in the room while an inmate is scanned.
Mulligan said that there won’t be any privacy issues, and everyone on the jail staff will be trained so no one has to wait for a shift change to be scanned. Gender issues will not be considered when deciding who conducts a scan.
“We’re still developing what will be our (standard operating procedures) and there is the potential it’ll be fluid for a while,” Mulligan said. “The goal is to make scanning a part of the standard booking process.”
The scanner is expected to be in full-time use next week.
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