New Madison County jail to receive $154k grant for body scanners
MADISON COUNTY, Tenn. — The Madison County Commission meeting was held Monday, with one of the main topics discussed being scanners for the new Madison County jail.
“We finally approved one grant today for the sheriff’s department for scanners, something that’s more than needed, so it was a well deserved grant and we were more than willing to approve that,” said Chairman Gary Deaton.
The grant for the scanners is $154,000 dollars, which will will be implemented in the new jail.
“We were having so much problems right now with inmates or individuals who get arrested and brought in to the jail, and the problem is they’re using their body cavities to hide stuff,” said Madison County Sheriff John Mehr.
Sheriff Mehr says in the past several weeks, there have been several cases of individuals attempting to bring objects in the jail.
“Some troopers brought in an individual and after the individual got there, the individual said, ‘I swallowed two bags of fentanyl,’ so immediately we had no choice, he had to go to the hospital,” said Mehr.
During the intake process, the first thing inmates will do is go through the scanner.
“Once they walk through it and we see something, the decision will be made whether our nursing staff are going to be able to do it and take it out or have to go to the hospital,” Mehr said.
Other topics were also discussed at the meeting regarding committee appointments, budget finances, and grants.
SEE ALSO: Madison County sheriff discusses $150,000 grant for training
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