Dover, Tenn.–The Stewart County Detention Facility was awarded a $325,000 grant from the Tennessee Corrections Institute to install a body scanner as well as clothing and other equipment for the inmates.
The grant was applied for by Sheriff Frankie Gray and Jail Administrator/Captain Sam Mills. The grant is a non-matching grant, meaning that the county will not have to pay any part of purchase.
A body scanner will allow all inmates being processed in jail to be screened for contraband such as drugs and weapons, protecting not only the inmates but also the correction officers. Most all of the drugs that enter the Detention Center are brought in by means of putting drugs in body cavities or in their clothing.
People who are arrested and swallow drugs in plastic bags can now be detected with the body scanner. Gray said, “Body scanners for Detention Center’s run between $175,000 and $200,000. This cost was just too much for the Sheriff’s Office to try to budget for but now this grant will allow for the purchase.”