By Pepper Fisher

PORT ANGELES – The Clallam County Jail has just installed a new full-body scanner designed to detect contraband coming into the jail or circulating within the facility.

Because the scanner detects all metallic, non-metallic, organic and inorganic contraband, it ensures deputies can safely and easily find cellphones, weapons, and drugs that inmates might be carrying on their person or in body cavities.

Chief Corrections Deputy Don Wenzl says they still use the old pat-down method and metal detector on most suspects that come into the jail, and they still do strip searches on suspects with certain charges, but the body scanner is an invaluable new tool.

“We actually use the scanner on all arrests and we actually can use it if, for some reason, we have any reason to believe that there was something already smuggled into the facility. Chain Gang workers, our kitchen crew, we can have them go through the scanner if we have reason to suspect anything.”

The jail was allowed to purchase the $160,000 machine using federal grant funding through the CARES Act, partly because deputies are also able to take a body temperature scan of the arrestee to check for fevers, especially helpful during this time of Covid.

Wenzl says the machine brings with it a kind of “deterrent effect”, that increases the safety of his staff and the inmates.

“We will get people that come into jail on a commitment, or they know they’re going to be get arrested, and come to jail. And so, sometimes they’ll prepare for their stay. This will help us detect any of that, that they’ve basically packed into the facility.”

The body scan takes less than 4 seconds and does not require the inmate to disrobe. Once the image is created and processed, it is reviewed and analyzed by a deputy of the same gender, who has been trained and certified to operate the machine.

 (Photo: Body image showing contraband detected by the scanner)