State Senator Julia Salazar and Assemblymember Phara Souffrant Forrest have introduced a bill to establish protocols for state prison staff when someone fails an initial security screening. This legislation follows recent concerns over staff denying visitor access after erroneous body scans with little transparency. On March 18, the two Brooklyn-based Democratic Socialist lawmakers unveiled the bill in Albany.
“Maintaining family bonds [and] keeping the village alive during incarceration is a lifeline,” said Souffrant Forrest. “Many families drive hours to visit their loved ones only to be turned away because of a body scanner flagging a tampon, while staff in these prisons face no scanning requirements whatsoever, despite being an important source of contraband materials in [Department of Corrections and Community Supervision] DOCCS facilities.”
This initial bill would mandate a second scan if the first detects an anomaly and prevent prison staff with less than six months’ experience in operating a body scanner from denying a visit without a supervisor’s second opinion. Staff who wrongly turn away visitors would face retraining and those with a pattern of wrongful denials would be disciplined, although the exact discipline is not outlined in the bill and would stem from the collective bargaining agreement.
In addition, the bill would require all employees to go through the same regular security checks through a rotating cycle of body scans, metal detectors, pat-downs, and canine searches. The sponsoring lawmakers expect this measure to reduce contraband brought in by prison staff, since smuggling continued when outside visits were paused during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most employees opt out of body image scanning, which would not be allowed under the new bill.
“The bill would outline a procedure for using body scanners in state and local correctional facilities,” said Shafeeqa Kolia, a spokesperson for Salazar. “It would define the steps that must be taken if visitors or employees fail the body scans and it would require employees to pass through the same security checks that are required of visitors, specifically for state correctional facilities.”
All adults must pass through a body image scanner for a contact visit. Medical exemptions require a lengthy application process. Regulation of the technology largely centers around safe radiation dosage as established by the accreditation board of the American National Standards Institute.
For visitors, opting out of body scans means opting out of contact visits. Those who ask for an alternative screening method like a metal detector or hand wand can only make a non-contact visit behind a glass partition, which imposes a time limit and can be unsettling for children. Meanwhile, research credits contact visits as an essential step in rehabilitation and reentry.
The state faced increased pressure to mandate body image scanning for visitors after an illegal prison guard strike last year demanded them. Currently, there are 88 machines in DOCCS facilities. According to the agency, the body scanner vendor is contractually obligated to train staff on using the machines and there are visible distinctions between detecting contraband and air bubbles.
Last fall, Salazar’s office recounted roughly 50 reports of prison employees turning visitors, usually women, away after screenings detected anomalies. Visitation rights were often subsequently suspended. However, staff never criminally investigated these incidents further for contraband smuggling allegations. Salazar, who chairs the State Senate’s corrections committee, pointed to how scanners regularly pick up tampon strings, surgery scars, and piercings.
“This is a real thing that we hear about all the time,” said Salazar during the press conference. “Maybe they have a benign tumor that showed up on the scan. That certainly is not contraband. Piercings — these are things that are by no means a threat to safety in facilities and they should not be used as an excuse [for] an incarcerated individual [not to have] the ability to have visitation.”
These body scan issues coincide with state prisons restricting prison visits to weekends, often subjecting friends and families to long waits, and often compounded with already-extensive commutes to the remote towns where many correctional facilities are located.
A DOCCS spokesperson said the department does not comment directly about pending litigation but looks forward to working with state lawmakers to make prisons safer. He also credited decreases across the board in assaults and use-of-force last year to successful prevention efforts against contraband smuggling.
“Contraband, such as drugs and weapons, contribute[s] to violence in prisons, and Commissioner [Daniel F.] Martuscello has set clear goals and instituted new policies to both reduce violence and combat the infiltration of contraband within our facilities,” said the DOCCS spokesperson. “This has resulted in a significant decrease in assaults and a reduction in the amount of contraband found in incoming packages.
“While the department does not comment on pending or proposed legislation, one way DOCCS is battling contraband is with the 88 body scanners across the state for use on visitors, the incarcerated, and staff.”
The NYS Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, a union representing corrections officers, did not respond to requests for comment.