Rikers can use body scanners on its inmates

ALBANY — Rikers Island will again be able to use body scanners on inmates to detect non-metallic weapons on inmates like ceramic knives.

The “ionizing radiation” body scanners had been used at the jail until 2014, when the state corrections commission ordered the practice to stop because state law required such devices be operated by licensed technicians.

The bill, signed into law by Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday, lets jail personnel to operate devices that detect non-metallic weapons in body cavities.

The New York City Department of Correction had previously obtained five body scanners that had been used at airports around the country until they were replaced after privacy concerns were raised.

Rikers has used the scanners to detect contraband in inmates’ bodies or clothing, including ceramic blades and weapons made of titanium and plastic that cannot easily be found in frisks and are undetectable by metal detectors, bill sponsors Assemblyman David Weprin (DQueens) and Sen. Kemp Hannon (R-Nassau County) said.

They said scanners are needed to help thwart a rash of stabbings at Rikers.

“During the period when the body scanners were in operation, use of the scanners appeared to act as a deterrent,” the bill memo said.

Opponenets of the bill fear that scanners cause cancer.

Hannon and Weprin acknowledge in their memo there is a “small risk” of cancer, but warned inmate and staff safety at Rikers trumps “a remote and unlikely threat of cancer.”

“In light of the endemic violence at Rikers Island and the increasing use of ceramic blades as weapons among the inmate population, it is important to safeguard staff and inmates from the immediate and widespread threat of slashing,” they wrote.

Correction Officers Benevolent Association President Elias Husamudeen called the law a “victory in our fight for restoring safety and security in New York City’s jails and, for that matter, enhancing safety in all correction agencies in the state of New York.”