Nov 4, 2009 5:29 pm US/Eastern
Md. Buys $1 Million In Security Equipment
TOWSON, Md. (WJZ/AP) ―
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Maryland's corrections officials have bought about $1.2 million in new security equipment.
CBS
Keeping inmates from breaking out is only part of what prisons do. Keeping contraband from coming in is also a full time job and essential to staff and inmate safety.
Alex DeMetrick reports Maryland is turning to high-tech tools in a search that never stops.
A lot of old-fashioned hardware keeps prisoners in. Maryland is turning to new scanners to keep contraband out.
The state's corrections officials have bought about $1.2 million in new security equipment.
They're checking not just what can be carried in pockets.Twenty-four BOSS chairs, scanners that can detect contraband metal objects hidden inside the body, are among the new purchases. They cost $178,000 each.
The chair will go into every Maryland prison and scans body cavities.
"We actually were able to intercept a handcuff key that was hidden in the nasal passage of an inmate," said Mark Martin, security operations.
The most dangerous are homemade knives, often made from metal and smuggled in from work details. But it's also cigarettes, drugs and especially cell phones that trigger daily searches of cells for hiding places.
There are still plenty of low-tech approaches. Strip searches where clothing is checked by hand is one method. It's a procedure that now includes a visit to the magnetic scanning chair for all arriving inmates.
According to the Division of Correction, the crackdown on contraband has resulted in a 50 percent drop in prison violence over the past three years.
(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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