CLEARFIELD – The Clearfield County Jail will soon have a full body scanner to help stop drugs and other contraband from getting into the facility.
During Tuesday’s Prison Board meeting, Warden Dave Gallagher noted that the purchase of the equipment approved by the county commissioners in September is moving forward. Once the paperwork is complete, the company will do a site visit and inspection.
The scanner costs $130,000 with funds for the purchase coming from the Opioid Settlement and American Rescue funds, according to previous reports.
It will take three days to install it. Six employees will be trained for about eight hours before using it, he explained.
“They can begin to use it quickly, after completing the training,” Commissioner Dave Glass commented.
It will be used when new inmates are brought into the facility and after contact with visitors. Another use will be checking those on work release when they return to the jail.
District Attorney Ryan Sayers added that it will be utilized if the corrections officers suspect someone of holding contraband.
“It is less powerful than an x-ray,” Glass noted.
Online information on the scanner, a HT3000SV from Secure Technology Value Solutions (STVS), specifies that it would take 400 inspections to equal the radiation of one chest x-ray.
It will detect items under clothing or hidden in a body cavity including weapons, explosives, drugs, mobile phones and jewelry.
“No system is perfect, but this is a big piece” to stopping contraband, Glass said.
The security at the jail has been in question after three female inmates overdosed on contraband drugs in July.
The third woman, Kaitlyn Evans, 31, overdosed a few days after the other two and died.
Police say Angela Marie Ricketts, 38, hid drugs including Fentanyl, Xanax and Klonopin in a body cavity when she was taken into custody for a warrant on July 5. She is now charged with multiple offenses including drug delivery resulting in death.
On Friday, the family of Evans filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the county, jail warden and other COs.
Among the issues raised in the suit, is that officials did not find the drugs after the first two overdoses, which happened moments apart.
The complaint also details how a CO failed to check on Evans after she was seen sleeping in an odd position, and when she was found unresponsive later, employees failed to do CPR, use Narcan as they had with the other women and even delayed calling 911.
The board did not discuss the lawsuit during the meeting, which is common with pending litigation. At the end of the meeting, they did go into an executive session to discuss legal and personnel issues.
In other matters, the warden reported that the average inmate count for the month was 163, 36 people are on home detention and seven inmates are participating in the work release program.
Under the extraordinary occurrence report, Gallagher reported there was one attempted suicide.
There was no mention of a CO assaulting an inmate.
Tyler Daniels, 26, of DuBois has been charged with simple assault and harassment as a result of an incident at the jail on Oct. 6, according to court documents.
He allegedly shoved a 65-year-old inmate whose hands were handcuffed in front of him, causing him to fall into a toilet and wall.
Daniels is also one of the COs named in the Evans lawsuit.