Bucks Jail To Screen Out Drugs With Ion Scanner

Two recent inmate overdoses has led to the Bucks County Correctional Facility in Pennsylvania instituting a policy of no-contact visits. The facility hopes to further reduce the possibility of drug smuggling by installing Smiths Detection’s Ionscan Sentinel.

The $116,000 device blows air at a person walking through the portal, then sucks the air though a vent to concentrate the ions to be analyzed by ion-mobility spectrometry.

The technology allows for specific drugs and explosives to be identified. Each ion type possesses “a characteristic speed” that can be measured as it passes through the scanner, according to Smiths product-support engineer Alan Sewell.

Ion scanners are currently used at airports, certain government buildings, and other jails.
Abstracted by the National Law Enforcement and Corrections Technology Center(NLECTC) from the Philadelphia Inquirer (12/31/03) P. B5; Turner, Dave.