A big upgrade is coming to the Clearfield County Jail in the form of body scanners.
The Clearfield County Commissioners approved the $130,000 purchase of a new body inspections system during Tuesday night’s meeting.
They say it will help make sure that nothing is being brought into the jail that shouldn’t be there.
While the Clearfield County Jail has plenty of security already, including barbed wire fences to make sure that no one gets out, the purchase of the body inspection system will help make sure that no drugs or weapons are coming in.
The jail is buying the security system from Secure Technology Value Solutions in State College.
The owners say they have sold these machines to different jails and prisons across the country.
Pennsylvania has plenty of these machines in place already, including one in Elk County that was put in over the summer.
Clearfield County Commissioners Dave Glass and John Sobel spoke about the benefits, including how it will help to prevent overdoses and drug use inside of the jail.
Glass said one of the biggest problems the jail is facing is opioid use.
Glass said one of the biggest problems the jail is facing is opioid use
He also talked about the training process that the guards at the jail will go through to make sure they are using the technology to its full capability.
“The training is the most important thing about it because you have to be trained to look for specific things and there’s different contrasts you can use and you can have somebody go through and if it doesn’t look right, you can have them go through again and maybe you can see something moved and then you can tell whether it is something organic or it is something that shouldn’t be there.”
