Sheriff Announces Intensified Drug-Search Regimen For San Diego Jails

SAN DIEGO, CA — County Sheriff Kelly Martinez is introducing an intensified jail screening program Friday designed to keep illicit drugs and other contraband out of San Diego-area detention centers.

Under the new policy, all jail workers, contractors and anyone else with business in county lockups will be subject to searches intended to "further secure detention facilities from the threat of drugs and contraband entering and harming incarcerated persons and staff," according to the Sheriff's Department.

The new regulations, which will include the use of drug-sniffing service dogs, will not pertain to public visitation areas, the regional agency advised.

"Years of data and investigations told us our focus needed to be on the incarcerated population," Martinez said in a prepared statement Thursday. "We established systems that targeted those offenders. We have had enormous success with this approach. However, it is now time to add to those security measures with a contraband screening of all personnel, contractors and professional visitors who enter our jails."

Further details about the new policy were withheld "to protect the security of ... detention facilities" according to the sheriff's public statement.

The change has been a longtime recommendation of the San Diego Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board.

"CLERB has strongly urged the sheriff to body-scan every single person who works in our county jails to keep illegal drugs from getting inside," said MaryAnne Pintar, head of the advisory agency. "As CLERB's new chair, I thank Sheriff Martinez for hearing us and doing the hard work to build out and enact a plan to make every single person working in the jails subject to random, surprise contraband screenings. It will undoubtedly go a long way toward preventing overdoses, saving lives and sparing families the pain too many have suffered."

— City News Service