Courtesy of Missouri Net:
Missouri’s 19 prisons have added a variety of measures to stop the flow of illegal items getting in, but not all workers are required to go through scanners used to spot these items. Smuggled articles making their way into prisons include drugs, weapons, and cell phones.
During a state legislative task force hearing on Wednesday, State Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins, D-St. Louis, questioned why some workers are getting through without being scanned.
“I sat there for two hours in Vandalia and watched not a staff member go through those body scanners. Why is that not happening if we, if the General Assembly appropriated the funds for those body scanners,” asked Collins.
Missouri Department of Corrections Liaison Taylor Hagenhoff said smuggling drugs is a problem that plagues prisons.
“There’s a certain percentage of staff that are scanned as they come in. It’s a randomized scan so that you’re not being scanned every time. My understanding of this is that it is that it has to do with the radiation in the process because we have people coming in and out so often, the psychological impact of the potential to be scanned every time is something that we lean on really heavily,” she said.
Collins said she wants the prisons to change this policy so that all workers are scanned.
According to Hagenhoff, illegal items are also getting into Missouri’s prisons by people throwing or drones dropping them over prison fences.
“We don’t have our facilities in super domes where we can cover the place completely, so the fence throws are something that we deal with and try to exclude as much as we can, but it’s it’s very difficult,” she said.
Missouri’s prisons have Narcan available to reverse drug overdoses.
“Our staff are trained to administer that and they do in circumstances when it’s needed,” Hagenhoff said.
She said some drugs have been turned into liquid and sprayed onto things like paper, which is hard to detect. To block smuggling, most mail to prisoners is scanned and emailed to them.
The statewide task force is compiling an annual report and will submit it to the legislature and governor in December or January.
