Jails use high-tech screening
Metal detectors search for guns and phones
By RICK HEPP

STAR-LEDGER STAFF

Before each shift, every New Jersey corrections officer lines up at the prison entrance to walk through metal detectors so sensitive they can distinguish between a knife and a coin.

Installed last year, the metal detectors are the latest attempt by the Department of Corrections to keep knives, guns, cellular phones and other contraband from entering any of the state's 14 prisons.

The department also is expanding the use of devices known as "body orifice security scanners," chair-like machines that can determine if inmates are smuggling anything inside their bodies.

The battle over contraband, particularly weapons, has been waged for as long as prisons have stood, experts say. But it heated up after officers discovered a loaded .32-caliber handgun at New Jersey State Prison on Aug. 4. The Corrections Department immediately ordered inmates back to their cells and canceled visits so officers could search the prison. The facility has remained in lock-down since.

High-tech screening devices may not be foolproof, but officials believe they can help keep many dangerous items out, heading off potential violence and escape attempts.

"We can make sure people cannot bring things in that would be a security risk to the facility," said Joseph Rizzo, administrator of the Central Reception and Assignment Facility in Trenton, where all inmates start their prison terms. "If nothing else, it makes someone who would think about it more reluctant."

Screening inmates, visitors and some prison employees is common procedure across the country. But most states do not require screening for corrections officers, as New Jersey does.

"Typically, across the nation, the guards are not required to do so because the corrections officers' union is incredibly powerful and they purport this would be an incredible invasion of privacy," said Daniel S. Murphy, a professor of criminal justice at Appalachian State University in Boone, N.C.

But after a recent incident in Florida, Murphy predicted, "there's going to be a change."

On June 21, a corrections officer at the federal detention center in Tallahassee shot at FBI agents who were trying to arrest him and five others on charges they had sex with female inmates in exchange for money and banned items. The officer, Ralph Hill, and an FBI agent were killed.

Under prison policy, Hill was not searched when he reported for work. In light of the shooting, the Federal Bureau of Prisons has begun installing metal detectors and requiring officers' personal items to be inspected, spokesman Michael Truman said.

The metal detectors installed in all 14 New Jersey prisons last year cost $9,500 apiece. Unlike standard models, the ones purchased by the state are connected to a computer that indicates precisely where the metal is on a person's body.

They also are sensitive enough to pinpoint metals commonly found in guns and knives — even those concealed underneath a protective vest — while ignoring coins, watches and jewelry, according to the manufacturer. Previously the prisons relied on pat-downs and hand-held detectors to check corrections officers.

Tom Moran, president of the New Jersey Law Enforcement Supervisors Association, which represents the department's sergeants, said the unions have no objection to the metal detectors.

"It's not like we've been subjected to strip searches," Moran said. "Every staff member is subjected to going through the same machine, including the administrator and any person who comes to visit the facility."

Besides weapons and cell phones — increasingly sought by inmates so they can talk freely with the outside world — the corrections department also prohibits inmates from receiving food and gift packages from the outside and requires them to wear only prison-issued uniforms. The department also has a canine unit that searches prisons and halfway houses for narcotics.

According to Murphy at Appalachian State University, research indicates most contraband is smuggled into prisons by guards.

"Prison is its own society, and it has its own economy," Murphy said. "Contraband is part of the inmate economy. A guard recently told me cigarettes go for $10 to $20 apiece inside, meaning a pack of cigarettes can earn a guard between $200 and $400."

But acting N.J. Corrections Commissioner George Hayman said the officers are just as interested as prison administrators in cracking down on illegal items.

"In fact, they're looking for it in other parts of the institution because it protects them," Hayman said.