Bartholomew County Jail officials believe investing $179,000 in a body scanner could be part of the solution to prevent individuals from smuggling drugs and other contraband into the jail by hiding items in a body cavity.
And in an ingenious twist, jail officials have figured out a way to have the inmates pay for the new scanner — indirectly.
“We’re essentially loaning the inmates the money to buy this scanner for us,” said Bartholomew County Sheriff Chief Deputy Maj. Chris Lane. “The inmates are essentially buying it.”
Lane, accompanied by Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers and Maj. John Martoccia, outlined the sheriff’s department proposal to buy the scanner, discussing it with the Bartholomew County Council on April 1 during a work session.
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They plan to present the proposal formally to council members at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the hopes the county will allow their funding idea and the purchase.
The department is proposing using money that inmates pay to make telephone calls out of the jail to fund paying for the scanner. Money from the phone calls now goes to two funds, the jail commissary fund, and a fund within that fund, “commissary tech,” Lane said.
In previous years, the money in those funds has gone toward servicing the jail’s generator and to buy computers and other technology.
The two funds generate just over $136,000 a year, about two-thirds of what is needed for the scanner, and all of it comes from inmates paying charges for their calls, he said. About half that money would normally go to the county’s general fund but the sheriff’s department is asking it be diverted to help pay for the scanner.
Over the last three years, the Bartholomew County Jail has had six drug overdose cases, including two methamphetamine overdose deaths, involving drugs smuggled in by females using their body cavities to conceal narcotics.
Between February and March, the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office arrested three females on multiple drug charges who were found to have drugs concealed in a body cavity.
“The incidents are increasing,” Lane said. “These are things that cannot be found with a typical strip search.”
The death of a 61-year-old Columbus woman on Aug. 9 in the Bartholomew County Jail was investigated by the Indiana State Police after toxicology results showed the woman had overdosed on methamphetamine while in a jail cell.
The previous year, Angela Blair, a 42-year-old Elizabethtown woman, overdosed on methamphetamine in the jail on Oct. 7, 2017, resulting in the convictions of two other inmates in conjunction with her death that was directly linked to smuggled drugs brought in through a body cavity.
State police determined that prior to the arrest of Debin Paige Gabbard, 27, Columbus, on Oct. 5, 2017, Gabbard grabbed a bag that contained heroin and methamphetamine and hid it in a body cavity as police approached her home, court records stated. The drugs were not detected when Gabbard was booked into jail, and Gabbard was placed in a medical unit with Mary L. Snyder, 19, Columbus, who received the methamphetamine from Gabbard and put it in a hair conditioner bottle, court records state.
On jail surveillance video, Blair is shown picking up the conditioner bottle and taking it with her to bed, court documents state. On the evening of Oct. 7, 2017, Blair was found unresponsive and later pronounced dead from an overdose, according to court records.
Gabbard and Snyder were sentenced to the Indiana Department of Corrections after entering into plea deals in their cases — Gabbard receiving a 21-year sentence and Snyder receiving 2 and a 1/2 years in prison, in relation to the incident.
Most recently, deputies arrested four people following an investigation into a group of people with a plan to smuggle illegal drugs into the jail in two women’s body cavities last month. Drugs were found in the body cavities of both women and all four individuals were arrested on charges ranging from dealing in a narcotic drug, dealing in cocaine, possession of heroin and possession of methamphetamine, among other charges.
As this type of activity has increased over the past year, Columbus police and sheriff deputies have, once or twice, taken a suspect to Johnson County to use a body scanner at the jail there, mainly in cases where a local officer suspects the individual may have contraband hidden in a body cavity, Lane said.
“They’re helping us out, “ Lane said of the Johnson County Sheriff’s Department’s willingness to allow Bartholomew County suspects to be checked. “It’s a working relationship, but we realize we can’t go to the well there often.”
Buying two scanners
It was only last spring that the decision was made in Johnson County to invest about $236,000 for two body scanners, Johnson County Sheriff Duane Burgess said.
“Every jail in Indiana needs to have at least one of these (scanners),” said Burgess, who served as jail commander until being elected sheriff last November. “Body scanners have been a fabulous tool that helps us locate illegal drugs and contraband right off the bat.”
Some individuals, when faced with being scanned, have confessed to attempting to smuggle drugs before stepping into the device, and are then taken to the hospital to have the items removed, or have removed the contraband themselves.
While Burgess’ department has been taking on a small amount of the burden to help Bartholomew County, Lane told the council there is a concern about liability. Lane said no process or machine is infallible and there is no way to take away the possibility of human error — which means using another county’s body scanner comes with some liability concerns.
When Johnson County deputies began using body scanners for the first time, they sometimes saw images of air bubbles or natural pockets as contraband until they gain sufficient training and experience at reading the scans, Burgess said.
In several instances, inmates in Johnson County have had to be taken to the hospital to have an item removed, or after they had ingested drugs, in an attempt to get the contraband into the jail.
When that happens, the sheriff’s office often has to get a court order to induce vomiting, and while waiting, the inmate could be at risk of overdosing as the level of the drug rises in their system, Burgess said.
For pregnant female inmates and suspects who have pacemakers, deputies still perform traditional body searches, he said.
While the equipment and training may be expensive, Johnson County officials consider the scanners an excellent investment “because if narcotics or weapons make it in the jail, the county is going to spend a lot more money on legal fees,” Burgess said.
It took more than a year of discussion in Johnson County before the sheriff’s department received approval to move ahead in the purchase, Burgess said.
Funding for the body scanners in Franklin came from county reserve funds, jail commissary purchases, and money the sheriff’s office receives when drugs, cash or other items are seized as part of a criminal investigation, Burgess said.
Since drugs and contraband could be smuggled into the Johnson County jail by offenders on work release returning from their jobs, a body scanner is located at the Community Corrections facility, as well as at the jail in Franklin, Burgess said.
It’s usually easy to tell if narcotics have made their way into a cell block, Burgess said.
“You’ll first find one inmate with a rapid heart rate, and high blood pressure right before you find another with the same symptoms,” Burgess said. “That’s when we usually do a complete search of the cells and perform strip searches of the inmates.”
The scanner takes about eight seconds to do a full body scan, and then correctional officers can zoom in on areas on the screen to look for anything that may be hidden, Burgess said.
The most likely time that an inmate will attempt to hide contraband in a body cavity is just before their sentencing hearing, the sheriff said.
Items discovered
While narcotics are the most discovered items, Burgess says he’s talked with jail personnel in other counties who have discovered weapons, cigarettes, cell phones — and even a phone charger and lighter within body cavities, Burgess said.
If a decision is made to purchase one or more body scanners in Bartholomew County, Burgess said he will urge Myers to publicize the news as much as possible.
Not only does the widespread knowledge of body scanners make inmates less likely to attempt to smuggle contraband into the jail, it also gives them more of an incentive to tell an officer if they have any drugs or weapons during their arrest, Burgess said.
Several suspects in Bartholomew County have been given the added charge of trafficking with an inmate after drugs, paraphernalia or other items are found on their person when they are searched at the Bartholomew County Jail.
If Bartholomew County decides to purchase a body scanner, it will go into the booking area of the jail, with the goal being that every person brought in for booking will be scanned as part of the process, Lane said.
The scan will occur when the individual is in their street clothes following an arrest so drugs, syringes or other paraphernalia the suspect may possess will be detected by the scan. Deputies have found syringes in inmates’ shoes or drugs concealed in waistbands of pants.
Any jail inmate who leaves the jail for a court hearing, or for a doctor’s appointment or other permitted travel, will have to be scanned when they return, Lane said. That’s because deputies have found that some inmates arrange for drugs or other contraband to be hidden for them under chairs or in other locations that are being visited, and then the inmates attempt to smuggle it back into the jail when they return.
Lane said the body scanner will come with a five-year parts and labor warranty, which includes employee training, but after about five years, the county will have to determine whether to continue using the scanner, or purchasing a new model.
“It’s sort of like buying a computer,” Lane said.
He cautioned that while some people might think the scanner is the 100 percent magic wand — the catch-all for anything that might be smuggled in — deputies already know that isn’t the case.
“It’s a tool to use that could assist us in detecting substances that are being smuggled in,” Lane said.
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The Bartholomew County Council will consider a $180,000 appropriation to fund a body scanner at the Bartholomew County Jail.
The council will meet at 6 p.m. Tuesday in the fourth floor of the Bartholomew County Governmental Office building at Third and Franklin streets.
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The scanner the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department hopes to buy is the TEK 84 Full Body Scanner which costs $179,000 and includes a five-year parts and labor warranty, which includes employee training. The scanner is a self-contained, software-based unit that completes a full-body scan in eight seconds.
The Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department is proposing using money that inmates pay for telephone calls out of the jail daily to fund paying for the scanner.
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