A story recently published about drug smuggling being on the rise at many California jails contains this interesting fact about Orange County's lockup: Not only has there been a massive increase in illegal drugs making it inside, but the county is purchasing several full-body scanners to give deputies full views of inmates' internal organs and any contraband they might be hiding. It gives being sent to the hole a whole new meaning!
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The report by the Associated Press and CBS station in San Francisco reveals Orange County jails have seen drug smuggling cases jump from 91 to 378 in the past three years so, yeah, it does sound like a problem.
Orange County is not alone. The AP also found drug smuggling is up at jails in San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles, Sacramento and Santa Clara counties. Indeed, some are getting arrested outside so they can bring meth, heroin and cocaine inside, according to the report.
But the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has a problem with only subjecting inmates to full-body scans, arguing that corrupt deputies are another source of drug trafficking in jails.
“If you're putting in scanners, are you going to apply them to everybody?” asks Peter Eliasberg, legal director with the ACLU's Southern California branch, in the piece. “I'd be shocked if they are.”
Speaking of shocked: corrupt deputies in Orange County jails? Perish the thought!
OC Weekly archives of corrupt deputies in Orange County jails
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OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.