The Logan County Detention Center will soon have a body scanner to help deputy jailers in the ongoing struggle to keep inmates from bringing contraband into the jail.

Logan County Jailer Phil Gregory said every jail is tasked with preventing inmates from bringing contraband like weapons and – more commonly – drugs into the facility.

The scanner will enable jail staff to more efficiently check inmates for contraband, he said.

“It’s just another tool we (will) have to combat the ongoing issue we have with inmates bringing contraband into the jail,” he said.

Typically, contraband gets into the jail when it is brought in by inmates after being booked or by inmates returning from work detail, Gregory said.

While the scanner will make the process of searching inmates more efficient, Gregory said his desire to purchase the scanner extends from his concern for maintaining safety in the jail.

“It’s a safety and security issue,” he said.

Gregory also noted that a number of other jails across the state have installed body scanners in the last few years and said he saw installing one as a way of “modernizing” Logan County’s jail.

“We’ve known we’ve needed this for some time,” he said.

According to Gregory, 10 inmates tested positive for methamphetamine use recently after some was brought into the jail from a worksite.

Gregory spoke about his desire for a scanner at the county’s regularly scheduled fiscal court meeting June 25 and received approval to put out bids for the device.

“It’s going to be very difficult for them to get through that scanner with any contraband,” he said.

The scanner is expected to cost somewhere between $150,000 and $200,000 and will be paid for with funds from the jail’s commissary, Gregory said.

“There’s no cost to the local taxpayers,” he said.

Logan County Judge-Executive Logan Chick said fiscal court granted unanimous approval to Gregory’s request to put out bids for the scanner.

“I think it would just make his booking a whole lot easier,” Chick said. “They can just scan the inmates instead of conducting a search.”

Gregory said the request for bids was sent out and should be opened at the next fiscal court meeting scheduled Tuesday.

Barren County Jailer Aaron Bennett had positive things to say about the body scanner in the Barren County Detention Center, which was installed in 2017, before he became jailer.

“It’s very good, especially when that community knows there’s a body scanner,” he said. “It deters them bringing in contraband.”

While working as a sheriff’s deputy in Barren County shortly after the scanner was installed, Bennett said he found that telling prisoners about the scanner and the felony they’d face if any weapons or drugs were found was enough to persuade some people to admit they were carrying contraband before arriving at the jail.

“It did deter a couple and they did say, ‘Yeah, I do have something on me,’ ” he said.

The main purpose of the scanner is to prevent inmates from being able to sneak contraband into the jail to make the environment safer.

“The main thing is stopping people from bringing in drugs they could hurt themselves with, that they could overdose on,” he said.