Valley County Detention Center Installs New Body Scanner

In order to keep detention officers and inmates safer, the Valley County Detention Center has recently installed a body scanner that will allow a visual on any potential weapons and /or contraband on the person entering the facility. The staff of the Detention Center is expected to be trained on the machine March 28, and once fully trained, the scanner will be implemented for any and all inmates entering the facility.

According to Valley County Sheriff Tom Boyer, it was standard practice in the past to do strip searches in order to ensure weapons and other contraband were not entered into the facility when an arrest was made. However over time, the state has ruled strip searches as something that can not be done unless that is an articulable reason as to why it needs to be done and if it has to be done, it needs to be gender appropriate. As a result of the rulings and the uncomfortableness not only for the inmate but for the detention officer as well, three years ago, the Valley County Detention Center ceased these types of searches and instead do pat searches. The process is to have an exterior pat search done, the inmate then goes to change out of their clothes into the Detention Center uniform. As a way to mitigate items coming into the facility, the thought is to have people stay in holding for up to 48 hours with the hope if they had anything on them, it would be discovered at that time. However the processes already in place doesn't stop people from brining contraband into the facility.

"People still bring in contraband into the facilities, to the extreme that they'll go out and get arrested for a minor offense just to bring stuff in. I would say that doesn't happen here, that happens in bigger jurisdictions and in other places. I'm not saying it couldn't happen, but generally we aren't dealing with that," explained Sheriff Boyer.

Though Sheriff Boyer states there is no current problem with contraband being brought into the facility currently, there have been instances where contraband has entered where it was not able to be stopped. He also believes the problem will get worse before it gets better in terms of frequency. "As you see more and more drugs filter into our area, across the border, all of these things are valid...it's in our communities. It's not getting better, it's getting worse," he stated. "So from a liability standpoint, we really want to be careful about what we're allowing or not allowing into the facility."

When the idea of looking into a body scanner for the Detention Center was first brought up to Sheriff Boyer by the Montana Association of Counties (MaCo) who was looking at reducing liability in various areas around the state, Sheriff Boyer admits he pushed back on the need. "When the jail was built, and God bless the people that built the jail and put that through, there wasn't a lot of thought for space and things like that. We don't have the room for it. My second pushback was 'Well we don't really have a problem'," Sheriff Boyer explained. However after meeting with a MaCo representative, the conversation opened up a whole new viewpoint. "If things are going to get worse, we need to be thinking about what decisions I make today can help us 10 years from now. This is the kind of thing that I might not be around for, but this technology and this instrument will be beneficial for the facility, for the county and for the taxpayers. We're mitigating any kind of liabilities through a non-invasive procedure."

The scanner itself is a low dose x-ray machine that takes approximately 3.8 seconds to complete. It also includes a kiosk where the inmate's information is entered in and the detention officer can view the image of the inmate. As Sheriff Boyer explained, before anybody comes into the facility they drive into the Sally port of the detention center where a detention officer will meet the arrestee. The intake form is filled out, the information is filled in through the kiosk, and then person will enter the scanner. At that point the detention officer can make the decision whether or not to accept the inmate. "It takes the liability off the jail," stated Sheriff Boyer.

Valley County received Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Funds (LATCF) in two different years, $1.8 million in 2022 and another $1.8 million in 2023. In January, Sheriff Boyer requested $132,000 of the LATCF funds to be utilized to purchase the scanner and kiosk which the Commissioners approved. During the purchase process, a five year warranty was also purchased for a total of $155,400 of the LATCF funds being utilized for this new addition. "MaCo went to the company and negotiated a process. We got a really good price," said Sheriff Boyer. Valley County is one of 10 other counties through the state to have the scanner installed in their detention center.

Though Sheriff Boyer was hesitate at first to get the scanner installed, now that it's getting closer and closer to the time to utilize it, he is excited to see what the future will bring for the detention center with this new addition.