Australian women’s jail to have full-body scanner

MELBOURNE - A high-security women’s prison in Australia will have a full-body scanner for checking visitors and inmates in order to stop infiltration of drugs and weapons inside the jail.

The special X-ray machine will be shipped from The Netherlands to the Dame Phyllis Frost Centre in Deer Park, Victoria’s only maximum-security women’s prison, to help bust outsiders or prisoners carrying contraband, Herald Sun reported.

Corrections Victoria Commissioner Bob Hastings said the prison would test the scanner early next year once licensing arrangements were determined. He said a drugs crackdown was part of the aim, but other contraband would also be confiscated at the Deer Park prison.

“(The scanner) can quickly and easily detect concealed weapons or drugs, without the need to carry out a strip search,” Hastings said.

The $240,000 Soter RS Security Body Scanner is a low-dose X-ray machine that shows items hidden on or inside the body within seconds.

The scanner is similar to the Backscatter X-ray machine tested in Melbourne airports in 2008, but does not show clear outlines of breasts and genitals, the paper said, adding that if the trial is successful it could be introduced to other prisons.

Last year 85 packets of cannabis or white powder were found in Victoria’s prisons. One bust saw a mother-and-daughter team charged after allegedly trying to infiltrate two different prisons with drugs.