As of Monday, the Marquette County Jail is the Upper Peninsula’s first jail to have a full-body scanning security system. The jail has begun using a Soter RS X-ray body scanner, made by OD Security North America.

The X-ray scanner was needed, Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt said, as contraband — such as controlled substances — has been brought into the jail by inmates in recent months, which posed a health and safety issue for inmates and corrections staff.

“We’re proud to announce that we’re starting the implementation of the Soter body scanner. This is only the second in Michigan,” Zyburt said. “The main purpose for this device is safety. It’s safety for the correctional officers and it’s safety for the inmates.”

The low-dose X-ray scanner, which is located in the jail’s sally port, is used to scan each incoming inmate and generates an image for staff to review so they can ensure the person is not bringing hidden contraband into the jail with them.

“Before they even come into the facility, corrections officers will scan them and then look at the image. And it’s basically an X-ray of the body and (they) look for anything unusual,” Zyburt said.

Prior to implementation of the scanner, the department would screen incoming inmates for contraband through pat downs and use of a drug dog. Now, these procedures will be used in conjunction with the scanner.

“We will still pat down, we still have a drug dog that will sniff; no one thing is 100 percent, but this is bringing the odds up,” he said.

If the scanner shows a person is found to be concealing contraband, they can be charged with a five-year felony, Zyburt said.

“We’re telling these people when they come in: ‘If you have something, tell us now, because we’ll charge you with a misdemeanor,'” Zyburt said. “If you go through and we find it, then it’s a five-year felony, it’s prison. So we’re trying to get the word out to everyone that we have this device now. And if you got something on your body, in your body, give it to us at the beginning and it’ll save you a lot of time in jail or prison.”

We believe the implementation of this scanner will benefit both the inmates and corrections staff alike. It not only decreases potential liabilities for the jail, but also serves as an incentive to keep some of the inmates honest and give them an opportunity to avoid much bigger problems than the ones they may be currently facing.

“I think this will go throughout the state, if not throughout the nation,” he said. “And in fact, our insurance carrier, our risk manager said ‘We believe in this so much, you’re going to save liability,’ and they donated a $15,000 grant to help pay for this; so I can really see it going nationwide.”