Body scanner of Simpson County Jailer Eric Vaughn reveals knife, pen, keys and other objects on Vaughn. The scan was conducted as part of a demonstration at the Daviess County Jail in Owensboro.

With the proliferation of illicit intravenous drug use, paraphernalia and other contraband, some Kentucky jails are already using low-dose radiation full-body scans and others are considering buying the equipment.

Christian County Jailer Brad Boyd, who is also president of the Kentucky Jailers Association, said the scanners in recent years have become more advanced, more compact and less expensive, costing about $200,000 each. He estimates eight to 10 county jails in the state are considering making that purchase to decrease the need for strip searches and increase the chances of finding contraband.

The machines assist with safety concerns and also litigation issues related to strip searches.

“With heroin use and abuse with needles, that would help keep deputies from getting inadvertently pricked by a needle,” Boyd said. “We’ve also had subjects that have been arrested and then come into the jail and have a small-caliber pistol in their pants.”

After a deputy jailer was stuck with a needle while conducting a search at the Barren County Detention Center in Glasgow, Barren County Jailer Matt Mutter has plans to buy a body scanner and to use the jail commissary account to pay for the device.

“The first thing we do (when inmates enter the jail) is pat them down and empty out their pockets,” Mutter said. “If we would have had a body scanner, we would have prevented that from happening.”

The deputy had to take a course of antiviral medication as a preventative measure.

“That will always be in our mind that we could have prevented him from being stuck with that syringe,” Mutter said.

Intravenous drug use across the state has skyrocketed, and jails are frequently seeing people enter correctional facilities with hidden syringes, Boyd said.

“Inmates are constantly finding new ways to insert contraband into their body cavities,” he said.

Some inmates come into the jail after swallowing balloons filled with heroin, a practice that can be fatal if those balloons rupture while still inside the stomach. If it passes through the digestive system and is retrieved by the inmate, jailers then have to contend with inmates using the drug.

“That type of incident has happened in other jails after it passes through digestive system and then they share that with other inmates and you have the potential for overdoses inside your jail,” Mutter said.

A body scan can pick up on abnormalities such as a syringe in a body cavity or a balloon of drugs inside someone’s stomach.

“Right now we have a policy that everyone who is going to the secure perimeter of the jail they are subjected to a strip search because of the all the contraband that is coming in,” Boyd said.

Those searches requires two deputies being pulled away from their other duties to conduct the searches. A full body scan would lessen the time it takes to do a search and the need to pull two deputies away from other tasks. Also, in Christian County, deputies currently don’t strip search all inmates who leave the jail during the day for work details. They are randomly selected for a search because of the time constraints involved in searching everyone. Having a scanning device would enable them to search everyone, which would cut back on the amount of contraband making it into the facility.

Mutter hopes to obtain Barren Fiscal Court’s approval to buy a scanner and have it in place by the end of the year.

“Contraband is a big issue at every jail and every prison,” Mutter said. “Even if we don’t catch anything, just the fact that we have the machine here will be a big deterrent. Every week day we have between 20 and 30 people who go out to work everyday. We have to strip search them when they come in.”

Simpson County Jailer Eric Vaughn is also interested in acquiring a body scanner for the jail in Franklin.

“I just have to find the resources to pay for it,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn, Boyd and Mutter recently visited the Daviess County Detention Center in Owensboro to see the body scanner that was recently installed there.

Vaughn walked through the scanner with a pen , his duty knife, keys, badge and other items on his person. All showed up in the image, in addition to a few small pieces of buckshot that remain in his body from a hunting accident when he was 18 years old.

“I believe it will be the answer to a lot of problems that we’re having,” Vaughn said of body scanners.

Using a scanner in place of a strip search could help cut down on lawsuits that stem from those types of searches and scanners would help find drugs before they get inside the facility.

Also, in Daviess County, the device has served as a deterrent.

“The inmates are scared to bring it in,” Vaughn said. “Two or three days after they started doing it, there was virtually zero contraband in the facility.”

Vaughn is aware of a jail in eastern Kentucky in which a supplier brought in heroin that resulted in several overdoses and one death. Had they been able to scan for drugs, the incident might not have occurred, Vaughn said.

“There’s a lot of benefits to it,” he said.

Vaughn plans to ask Simpson Fiscal Court for a scanner.

Warren County Jailer Jackie Strode said he would ideally need two scanners for the Warren County Regional Jail. But he doesn’t know where the funding would come from to buy them.

“If somebody would pay for it, I’d love to have one. I don’t see there being $100,000 to $200,000 to purchase one. I think it’s an effective tool. I think it’s proven itself in other jails and prisons but I don’t see anyone purchasing one for us,” Strode said.

“It’s something that could be discussed,” Strode said. “We would really have to look at the total picture of our program. Would we have to give up anything to be able to do it?”

— Follow Assistant City Editor Deborah Highland on Twitter @BGDNCrimebeat or visit bgdailynews.com.