Sheriff seeks approval for full-body scanner
The Ulster County Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee has endorsed the Sheriff’s Office’s request to buy a full body scanner for the county jail to avoid repeating an incident in which ceramic blades escaped detection.
Sheriff Juan Figueroa, at a meeting last week, said the need for a scanner arose in January after inmates arriving from Rikers Island Correctional Facility in New York City were temporarily housed in Ulster County and later sent to Albany County, where the blades were found using equipment there.
“They came to our facility, we did a search of them, did not find it, and they continued on to Albany County, where they did have a body scanner
and they found 15 ceramic knives inside a certain cavity of the body,” he said.
Figueroa said one of the inmates had been cut while staying in Ulster County, but officials were not provided details how that occurred. After the meeting, he said
the inmates were sent to Albany because they were not getting along.
“When Albany County received them, they used our probable cause, because they didn’t make that cut, to take them and have them scanned,” he said.
In an April 8 letter, Ulster County Law Enforcement Center officials said inmates have used body cavities to avoid detection when transporting
items into prison.
“We must not forget that the human body is a ‘mule’ for individuals entering correctional facilities to smuggle drugs and other contraband as well,” he said.
Figueroa, following the meeting, said the items are about the same size and shape as blades used for scraping paint. He said other items will also be visible in a scan.
“It’ll show (items) in the intestines, it’ll show rods, if there’s something there it will show up for any orifice in the body,” he said.
Under the resolution, which is scheduled for a vote by the full county Legislature on Tuesday, May 21, the Sheriff’s Office would buy the scanner and related equipment for $167,151 from OD Security North America, of Daniel Island, South Carolina.
Figueroa said use of the scanners will end strip searches at the county jail.
“You have the demeaning and degrading of somebody coming in (with strip searches),” he said. “If your mother or sister gets arrested and comes to jail, she’s got to be strip searched. It will never happen again, just like going through an airport scanner.”