It wasn’t too long ago that if a Prison Officer suspected a person of carrying contraband into a prison then the only tools at their disposal for detecting was a pat-down, a wand and a flashlight! “Visual searches” and “strip searches” may detect the contraband, but sometimes a full “body cavity search” was necessary.
This visual and/or manual internal inspection of body cavities is far more invasive than the standard strip search. A body cavity search is an unpleasant, humiliating and degrading procedure. The prisoner will have to cooperate fully with the Officer by manipulating various cavities, including their mouth, nose, ears, penis or vulva and buttocks, to prove that no contraband is concealed within. Squatting and coughing are sometimes required, (sometimes over a mirror – for a better view) to extricate any concealed foreign object.
For some years now, the industry has been working with prison authorities to find the best way to stop drugs entering prisons and one product that has been providing some great results is the SOTER RS low dosage full-body scanner, designed and manufactured by ODSecurity.
It combines ultra-low radiation with maximum visibility and is extremely simple and fast. This scanner can identify any foreign material being smuggled, whether it is hidden on or inside the human body.
Fast forward to today, and you will find the SOTER RS low dosage full body scanner operational in correction and detention centres, worldwide.
To ensure the safety of both prisoners and prison officers in a controlled manner, some US States and certain countries have legislation that prevents the use of “manual” searches without Probable Cause. In Ohio for example, x-rays are illegal outside doctors or dentist surgery, with the one exception: “security screening equipment – used for the sole purpose of screening an individual who is in the custody of a law enforcement agency.”
Canada is currently in the process of changing its legislation to include “Probable Cause”. This would mean that every prisoner would need to be scanned before they could be “manually” searched. The scanning would not only show up any contraband hidden on or in the prisoner, therefore alleviating the need for any “manual” search, but the data received from the scans would provide invaluable information for the prison authorities to help with their future security planning, and ultimately prove to be a deterrent to other prisoners.
The scanner has been operational in sixteen establishments across Ontario, Canada since January 2017, and David Ellis, Provincial Emergency Response and Security Coordinator of the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services, Ontario, Canada, has confirmed the following figures: those sixteen scanners have to date performed 139,600 scans. Of these, 4,774 scans were recorded as “positive” with finds of 10 mobile phones, 74 weapons (knives and shives) and the rest being drugs. That’s a massive 4,690 packages of drugs that have not entered correctional facilities in Ontario!
These packages would have been concealed on or inside a person, combatting the correctional facilities’ stringent security checks. Either swallowed, or inserted into the vagina, the rectum or even inside rolls of fat.
The SOTER RS has provided those establishments across Ontario with a successful and non-invasive option to prevent contraband from entering their prisons, and thereby keeping their inmates safe from themselves and ultimately others. The SOTER RS provides a win-win result!
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The Soter RS Body Scanner by OD Security ensures a safe environment for prisons’ personnel, inmates and visitors. It consists of a safer, more effective solution to managing the risk of contraband (be it drugs, weapons, cell phones or other items). It reveals everything within ten seconds, it is user-friendly and it achieves a high-quality scan image with a minimum amount of radiation.
