For the primary time, Hail County Jail has an digital scanner, and corrections officers need potential criminals to find out about it.
They really feel that suspects, realizing they will be going via a high-tech scanner, can be extra apt to surrender weapons and contraband as quickly as they arrive.
Todd Bahensky, director of the Corridor County Division of Corrections, believes the full-body X-ray scanner will make life safer each for inmates and corrections officers.
The scanner, referred to as Clearpass, is made by an organization known as Linev. It was not too long ago put in within the pre-booking space at Corridor County Jail.
The Clearpass is the primary digital scanner the jail has had.
Till now, “We did it the old school approach, which is pat searches and strip searches,” Bahensky mentioned.
Corrections officers relied on “what we might really feel and what we might see,” he mentioned.
The scanner isn’t just a steel detector. It might additionally choose up natural objects.
Linev says Clearpass has “extraordinary detection functionality.” The corporate says the scanner makes use of Linev’s “unique automated menace detection algorithms” that “facilitate the fast, non-intrusive inspection of individuals trying to hide contraband gadgets on or inside their our bodies.”
The principle objective of the addition is “preserving everyone in right here secure,” Bahensky mentioned. “Our concern is harmful gadgets getting in right here, whether or not it is weapons which were hid and harmful medication getting in right here.”
Fentanyl is such a robust drug that even touching it may be harmful, Bahensky mentioned. The drug will be absorbed via the pores and skin, he mentioned.
“So we’re actual involved about that form of stuff moving into the jail.”
A scan takes a most of three seconds.
The scanner just isn’t transportable. Inmates stand contained in the portal as they’re scanned, simply as vacationers do at airports.
However gadgets will be delivered to the scanner to be checked. For example, corrections officers may need a mattress scanned if they believe a weapon is hidden inside it.
Inmates vogue weapons from quite a lot of completely different gadgets, akin to toothbrushes.
The price of the scanner, together with software program and coaching, was $160,000.
No taxpayer cash was utilized in its buy.
Corridor County Division of Corrections reached a financing association with two distributors that work with the jail. One is Encartele, which offers the jail’s communications system, together with cellphone, e mail and video visitation. The opposite vendor, Summitt, handles the meals service and commissary.
Different companies across the state instructed Corridor County officers that scanners have labored effectively for them.
In planning how the scanner is used, the Corrections Division determined that each particular person booked into the jail can be scanned.
The system is not used simply when new arrests are made. Present inmates can be scanned in the event that they’re suspected of possessing one thing they should not. The identical is true of inmates who’re on their approach to a court docket look. Individuals on work launch may be scanned sometimes if suspicions have been raised.
“After they’re in jail, we are able to search them at any time when we really feel we have to,” Bahensky mentioned. In jail, individuals do not have a proper of privateness.
The scanner offers the workers “consolation in realizing that they do not have something on them,” mentioned Sgt. Mitch Treatment, who’s the jail’s reserving sergeant.
Utilizing pat downs, corrections officers discover nearly each cellular phone that suspects strive to usher in. Having a cellular phone in jail just isn’t allowed.
The largest situation is medication coming into the jail.
The jail has “had points prior to now with individuals who’ve swallowed one thing,” Treatment mentioned. These new inmates appear advantageous within the reserving space after which a day later, they’re extra aggressive and “they appear larger than they have been,” Treatment mentioned. Corrections officers aren’t certain if a container inside them popped, or what may need occurred.
When totally staffed, Corridor County Corrections has 88 workers, together with Bahensky. Proper now, the quantity is 78.
The Division of Corrections would not need individuals to maintain the scanner a secret.
“We would like everyone to know it is right here,” Bahensky mentioned.
“Hopefully, the phrase spreads,” Treatment mentioned.