New body scanner to help jail keep out drugs

The Delaware County jail, like dozens of other jails, wants to curb contraband and illegal drugs from being smuggled in to its inmates.

So it’s planning what 33 other correction facilities in Ohio already have installed: body scanners that use X-rays to find concealed items.

But the cost to Delaware County will be more than most. The jail has decided to build a small addition to its jail on Route 42.

“We don’t have the space to put one in right now,” said Chief Deputy Jeff Balzer.

The 500-square-foot addition will accommodate the machine in a new intake area to be built toward the rear of the jail. The existing intake station will be converted to an area to process inmates for release or for court hearings.

Some profits from an inmate commissary fund, which generates about $60,000 a year, will help pay for the scanner, but funds for the expansion will mostly come from county funds. The county has budgeted about $500,000 for the construction. Scanners run about $200,000 each.

Delaware doesn’t have the scale of problem that counties including Richland and Fayette have had with a rash of overdoses.

But about once a month, drugs are found during searches of new inmates, said Balzer. And about six times a year, an inmate is found either high or in possession of drugs.

Inmates must complete a questionnaire before entering the jail, including questions about their drug use or addiction.

Many are honest, because they know they will get help, said Balzer.

“But just because they admit that they have a drug addiction doesn’t mean that they are going to admit to smuggling drugs into the facility.”

Preventing harm to inmates, and liability to the county, is a top priority, he said. “You’re risking the death of someone in your custody, and that’s something we always try to avoid.”

The Ohio Department of Health must inspect all radiation-emitting devices and currently keeps track of body scanners in 33 correction facilities, said spokesman Russ Kennedy.

As in Delaware County, jails in Fayette, Richland and Coshocton counties also have needed facility upgrades, either solely for scanner installation or as part of a jail expansion, said JoEllen Smith, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction, which oversees jail construction around the state.

Delaware’s new addition will add a second and third shower to the intake area. All new inmates are required to shower and leave their street clothes in storage.

Richland County spent more than $200,000 for its scanner, and an additional $100,000 to convert a storage area for its use.

“We had no room to put this in, and we had a storage area right outside of booking,” said Capt. Chris Blunk, jail administrator.

In 2016, five women overdosed on heroin, prompting the decision to buy the scanner, Blunk said.

Since its installation in April, there have been no overdoses. The machine has found drugs, including a large bag of methamphetamine, crack pipes or needles seven times. And three inmates confessed to having hidden items in body cavities before being scanned, said Blunk.

“You’ve got to go in knowing that is not going to be a cure-all,” he said. “It’s just another tool — an expensive tool — but I think it’s worth it.”

Balzer hopes for equally positive results in Delaware once renovations begin this spring.

“It will make it safer for the staff and the inmates, too,” he said. “It lowers the risk that they are going to die from overdoses.”

A former assistant Franklin County prosecutor was sentenced Friday to three days in jail and three years on probation after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor count of drunken driving for causing a crash that injured a motorcyclist at a Downtown intersection.

Nathan Yohey, 38, of the Near East Side, also pleaded guilty to a felony charge of failing to stop at the scene of the crash, but he was approved for a treatment program that, if completed successfully, will lead to the dismissal of that count.

The program, known as intervention in lieu of conviction, requires Yohey to remain free of drugs or alcohol for a period of one to five years, depending on how long the court decides he must be supervised.

His defense attorney, W. Martin Midian, said Yohey has been in recovery and undergoing treatment since shortly after the March 16, 2016, incident.

The sentence was imposed by Franklin County Common Pleas Judge Michael J. Holbrook.

Police reported that Yohey was driving a GMC pickup truck west on East Broad Street shortly before 11 p. m. and made a left turn onto South 3rd Street, colliding with a motorcycle and a car. The motorcyclist, Brian Millar, underwent surgery at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center.

Prosecutor Ron O’Brien fired Yohey the day after the crash. Yohey had attended a beer- and- brats fundraiser for O’Brien at the Germania Club on South Front Street in the Brewery District several hours before the crash.

Millar attended the hearing and supported the plea agreement, which also included the dismissal of the most- serious charge, aggravated vehicular assault.

The case was assigned to a special prosecutor, Kyle Rohrer of the Delaware County prosecutor’s office, to avoid a conflict of interest for O’Brien’s office.