The Berrien County Jail has received a new piece of equipment intended to prevent deaths in the facility.
Undersheriff Chuck Heit tells us they’ve purchased a full body scanner, something that can detect if someone has swallowed an object or hidden an object on their person, no matter what it is.
“It will scan the entire body, including things that may be inside,” Heit said. “We’ve had some incidents where people have swallowed drugs. It can detect metallic and non-metallic items, so it would pick up baggies of drugs, but also weapons as well.
A Benton Harbor man who was an inmate at the jail died in March after swallowing a plastic baggie of meth. Heit says the sheriff’s department decided to get the new scanner to prevent such incidents.
“Before, we’ve had scanners that just do the outside or may pick up metal objects, but this is a whole body scanner that will show if there’s things inside or hidden as well.”
Heit says the equipment was already on the department’s capital projects list, but the March death prompted quicker action on making the purchase.
Heit tells us about 16 jails in the state have full body scanners. Its cost was $140,000 and it was scheduled to be delivered this past week.
