PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office has new body scanners to find drugs inside people and officials say they are already spotting contraband.
MCSO said on Tuesday it has received 10 LineV body scanners for its six jails in the Phoenix area. Officials said the new equipment will improve the ability to find illegal items in and on people coming into the jails and will reduce the number of invasive cavity searches.
On Monday, a body scanner went live at the intake area at one of the jails and within 90 minutes, an inmate was found to have suspected drugs, MCSO said.
“One of my primary objectives is to try to eliminate drugs from our jail system,” Maricopa County Sheriff Sheridan said in a written statement. “These scanners will assist in our ongoing efforts to achieve this goal, while also providing an additional layer of protection for the Detention staff.
The LineV scanners are full-body scanners that emit less than 0.25 microsieverts of radiation, which is equivalent to 1/100th the dose of a chest X-ray. Three types of scanners are being installed. They are:
Conpass Smart DV
- Dual-angle, transmission full-body X-ray scanner for correctional environments.
- Has radiation shutters
- Features real-time dose metering
ClearPass
- Rapid, non-invasive imaging completed in just 3 seconds
- Delivers high-resolution threat detection for effective screening
ClearPass Ci
- Compact and mobile partial-body scanner
- Designed for targeted inspections (e.g., groin or torso areas)
The Maricopa County jail system has the fourth-largest inmate population in the country. Earlier this year, it made national headlines after more than a dozen overdosed at the Estrella Jail within three weeks. One of those inmates later died.
Anyone who goes inside a jail is patted down and goes through a wave body scanner but officials said that wasn’t enough to catch all the illegal drugs coming in.
In April, MCSO said it was also looking into wearable technology that will track inmates’ vital signs to try to prevent overdose deaths.
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