We ask you to help us find out about the so-called prison "drug scanner." We ask you to help us get the device outlawed and to litigate against its use on prison visitors.
The Pennsylvania prison system is infected with a number of obsessive manias, sure signs of the unhealthy minds of the extremists in political power. One special compulsion is the irrational witch hunt for drugs.
There is no question that the two worse drugs are alcohol and tobacco. There is also no question that most prison guards and administrators are addicted to one or both of those substances.
Other drugs are the focus of the prison system's insane obsession. Millions and millions of tax dollars are thrown at the "problem." The prisons are unwilling to accept the truth that drugs are brought into prisons by guards. They insist that the prisoners' visitors are the culprits. In true extremist fashion, an excessive and intrusive scheme is operated to "interdict" (don't you love the self-importance of bureaucrats?) this supposed dribble of illegal drugs.
Pennsylvania Prisons have started using an insane gadget to "test" the lint from visitors' pockets! The apparatus is variously called a "Dust Buster," a drug sniffer and/or an ion scanner. It is run over women's garments, pockets and shoes (yes, shoes which may have walked on anything anyplace). Supposedly, this marvel of pseudo-science miraculously detects the trace residue of illegal drugs.
You no doubt detect the similarity here between this nonsense and the "tricorder" mythology believed in by Star Trek aficionados. Still, fiction is fiction and make-believe is make-believe.
Although I've never been involved with illegal drugs and there is absolutely no probable cause to search or examine me with this magic wand, I have been subjected to the humiliating and intrusive procedure on several occasions. On one occasion I saw two false positive "test" results in only eleven uses. That's a false positive rate of about 17%! The results appear to be purely random.
Another woman was actually bared from visiting the prisoner that she'd traveled hours to see. The women who were the victims of the false positive scans were subjected to further humiliation and intrusion. On the basis of the false positives, prison guards demanded to search the women's cars. If the purpose of the procedure is to prevent drugs from entering the prison, why are the cars searched? Obviously, to discourage the visiting. The cars don't enter the prison. Any drugs in them can't pose a threat to the terrified prison system. If the yokel guards can search a visitor's car, next, they'll search their homes.
Guards won't allow the gadget to be used on them and their cars are not searched.
Because the "science" is obviously flawed, the Department of Corrections will not reveal anything about the apparatus, the testing or the protocol governing the use of the gadget. We can't find out enough to sue the manufacturer, the prison system or the guards who impose the device upon the public, mostly women. Can you give us any information? Please share anything you know about this device. Click here to go to our comments form.
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