Sheriff: Contraband is constant battle in jails

RUSSELLVILLE — Franklin County Sheriff Shannon Oliver said the county jail is not immune to the problem jail officials everywhere face: Inmates coming up with creative attempts to bring contraband into the facility.

“We have problems just like jails all over the state,” Oliver said.

Oliver said search policies have been in place at the Franklin jail. Almost eight months ago the jail installed a full body scanner.

“It’s hard to stop,” he said. “When people have an addiction or craving, they are going to do what they need to do. It’s a constant battle.”

Oliver said in addition to the full body scanner and search policies which are in place, the jailers perform random shakedowns.

“There are different levels to our shakedowns, but they are never done at a particular announced time,” he said. “And almost daily a jailer will check an inmate’s belongings inside the jail.”

Oliver said from time to time the jailers and administrators have caught people trying to “sneak something through the mail.” He said there were occasions where people tried to throw items over the fence outside the jail.

“When we had inperson visitations, there would be occasions where a person visiting would try to leave something in one of the outside bathrooms. That was solved by not having those types of visitations.

“You have to be on the defense and stop it,” Oliver said. “I’d like to say we do a good job, but I’m sure we fall short quite a bit and just don’t know it. But the main thing is we do try.”

His comments came after five people were charged last week with attemptingtobringcontraband into the Lauderdale County Detention Center. Someone left contraband near a garbage bin and a trusty took it into the jail. Lauderdale County Sheriff Joe Hamilton said officials set up a sting operation after discovering the contraband, leading to the charges against two inmates and three people outside the jail.

Hamilton said the Lauderdale sheriff’s office and Drug Task Force conducted the sting operation last week.

“During that investigation it was determined that another inmate inside had organized with folks on the outside to conspire to bring these packages into the jail,” Hamilton said.

The package contained crystal methamphetamines, Suboxone strips, cigarettes, a cell phone and chargers, he said.

Hamilton said the battle against contraband requires constant monitoring and jail officials do all they can to combat it.

“We have added additional surveillance cameras inside the jail and outside the jail and they are monitored 24/ 7 for any suspicious activity such as that,” he said. “It is a big challenge to try to keep products and other contraband from coming into the jail, but we generally have good luck in stopping it. It’s not specific to this jail. Every jail around us has problems with contraband and introduction of contraband.”

Hamilton said they make sure drones are not overhead, particularly over outdoor recreation areas.

All inmates are scanned and strip searched when they are booked into the detention center, Hamilton said.

“It’s still a challenge because of body cavities things have been slipped in before,” Hamilton said.

They also do weekly cell searches.

“That may not turn up anything, which is a good thing,” Hamilton said. “It may turn up a homemade type of weapon or other contraband.”

He said they must monitor incoming mail because people have coated letters in Suboxone and inmates consume the paper.

“They try all kinds of things,” Hamilton said. “They don’t use their mind a lot before they get into jail but once they get in there they come up with some pretty creative things.”