MEDFORD, Ore. – The Jackson County Jail has a new body scanner to keep workers and inmates safe.
The body scanner will eliminate the need for cavity searches in most cases according to Lieutenant Josh Aldrich.
“Obviously the most unpleasant part of our job is looking at naked people, right? You don’t want to do that,” Aldrich said.
The jail recently purchased the scanner to keep contraband out of the facility.
“The body scanner is a machine that essentially takes a picture of their insides and will show us if there is anything that isn’t naturally occurring and we can check it out and refer it off to medical and then we can hopefully stop it from coming into the facility,” Aldrich said.
Aldrich said they’ve seen it all.
“Things that are typically smuggled in are drugs,” Aldrich said.
The scanner won’t completely eliminate the need for strip searches.
“There is a variety of reason for the unclothed search, we are also looking for injury and illness,”Aldrich said.
In some cases, the scanner won’t be used at all.
“People with physical disabilities or medical conditions,” Aldrich said.
Because of the recent opioid epidemic, the jail said they are seeing more contraband coming in. For staff, the scanner will be an extra layer of protection.
“It is science, it is going to show us things that we can’t see with our current practices,” Aldrich said.
Aldrich said the department needs to finish training, and then they will start implementing the scanner.
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