His Excellency The Governor, Duncan Taylor visited H.M Prison, Northward, in order to present a brand new B.O.S.S. II Body Orifice Security Scanner, which cost CI$$7800. The money of the new scanner had been provided by the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office as part of its annual allocation of funds.

The new scanner – described as a “very important’ tool,” is aimed at cutting down the smuggling of metal items such as razors, weapons, mobile phones and SIMM cards.

The scanner works a bit like airport archway security scanners, but is shaped like a chair so that different areas of the body can be identified as hiding metal objects when a person sits on it. It can also be used for uncovering metal objects concealed in the mouth.

Director of Prisons, Mr. Dwight Scott: “This is an extremely important tool within our tool kit. Items such as SIM cards which is sometimes very difficult to detect and can be hidden in various locations – this will actually assist us in locating them, as well as Items like razors or other weapons. Items that the walk through scanner will not detect…the BOSS chair is better able to detect these items and it is able to pinpoint the area of the body where the item is actually hidden.”

The new device will be used for prisoners, prison visitors, as well as staff who enter the prison. It also has the advantage of being mobile, Mr. Scott said, so that we can move it around wherever it is needed within the prison.

“Phones can enable a host of things that enable those in prison to actually continue their criminal networking activity…what this new piece of equipment will do is serve as a deterrent,” Mr Scott added

Governor Taylor said: “Its actually a completely non-invasive system…we’ve been working on this for a bit. It’s a small donation from the Foreign Office in this case from the Programme Project that we have. I hope this will prove a very useful tool for the staff in the prison to make it much more difficult for people to smuggle particulary mobile phones and SIM cards into the prison.

“We do face a challenge with prisoners who bring mobile phones and SIM cards into the jail which allows them to make inappropriate contact with people outside the jail. We want all the assistance we can to stop that or at least make it a good deal more difficult.

“Its non-invasive so its safe for people with pacemakers and its also safe for pregnant women. It has very low levels of radiation.

“We believe there is some contact between the people in Northward and the people who have been involved in some of these crimes in the last few days,” Mr. Taylor added.

Boss II orifice Security Scanner

Chief Officer of the Portfolio of Internal and External Affairs, Franz Manderson said:  “We are very grateful for the Governor and Foreign Office to provide this equipment. It’s a very valuable piece of equipment.

Photo Captions:

Photo 1: Staff Officer Tom Hinds demonstrates the new body orifice security scanner, watched by a fellow prison officer, Duncan Taylor, Franz Manderson and Dwight Scott

Photo 2 Staff officer Tom Hinds demonstrates the abililty of the new scanner to detect items hidden in the mouth