Clarissa Kell | Daily Press Sgt. Jeff Vallier, left, and Sheriff Ed Oswald of Delta County Sheriff’s Office discuss contraband within the new Delta County Correctional Facility outside the holding rooms within the facility in Escanaba recently. Both men agreed the holding rooms at the new facility has drastically decreased drug smuggling in the jail system.

ESCANABA — Bringing in contraband is an issue jails and prisons are battling across the country. Delta, Schoolcraft and Menominee county jails are facing this challenge in their own ways.

According to Delta County Sheriff Ed Oswald, since moving to the new facility in June of 2019, the jail has seen a huge decrease in people bringing in drugs.

Oswald attributes this to holding individuals entering the jail system for 72 hours in the facility’s booking area where they can be closely monitored.

“We had quite an issue of smuggling at the old facility,” he said. “We were limited on our abilities to control it.”

He explained there were only three small holding tanks at the old facility, and with the overcrowding issue inmates were only held for a short period of time.

“At this facility we knew that we had to hold people longer so we have a lot more temporary holding cells that are set up for observation,” Oswald said.

Since the move and changing the length of time individuals are held before entering the jail system, Oswald said the jail staff has seen far less of a problem with inmates and can tell there isn’t a problem with drug smuggling any longer.

“It is extremely rare — I’m sure we have but it’s not something like what we’ve seen at the old facility,” Oswald said.

Another way the Delta County Correctional Facility is combating smuggling is keeping different categories of inmates separated.

According to Oswald, there are weekenders, day parole, and inmate workers. Those different types of inmates do not mix.

He added they’re also broken up even more depending on their classifications, or the crime for which they’re in jail and their behavior within the jail.

“We’re conscious of that, we do not want drugs in the facility,” Oswald said.

Menominee County’s jail, which is around 40 years old, has a system in place to combat smuggling drugs in the jail, but the most important factor is having a K-9 officer in the jail.

Menominee County Sheriff Kenny Marks explained drug smuggling is a problem in pretty much all jails now, adding the inmates that bring in contraband are typically work-release or have planned it ahead of time.

He noted there are so many different ways inmates can smuggle drugs in.

“They’re very creative,” Marks said.

Although Menominee County jail does not have a full-body scanner due to costs of not only purchasing a machine but also its maintenance, Marks said the ideal way for jails and even prisons to combat drugs would be a scan.

“It would be a huge deterrent having it,” he said.

Menominee County’s system to combating drugs in its jail includes correctional deputies being extensively trained in not only the initial intake search, which does include a strip search, but identifying suspicious behavior and conducting thorough inspections of cellblocks when necessary.

According to Marks, the first step is conducting searches of the items brought in with the individual, a search of the individual and once the person is in the jail’s uniform they’re released into the general population. He added if someone comes in and there is a suspicion right away, from either an informant or something, then deputies ask for a warrant for a cavity search.

Cavity searches can only be done at a hospital and are very rarely done, Marks said.

If an individual enters the general population and somehow still manages to bring contraband into the jail, Marks said there are cameras within the jail and deputies trained to detect suspicious behavior.

If someone is suspected of bringing in drugs or other contraband, then a thorough inspection of cellblocks are done. Random drug tests can also be administered within the facility.

Marks said during those searches, K-9 Officer Avery and his handler Sgt. Tina Nast are brought in to specifically search the area.

Even when K-9 Avery isn’t being used for a specific search in the jail, he stays within the jail with Nast.

If Avery ever smells anything within the jail and alerts to a substance, then correctional deputies begin the process of trying to narrow down the location to where the scent is coming from, Marks said.

“It’s a combination of all those things that makes it work,” he said.

Finding drugs within the jail is taken seriously in Menominee County, according to Marks. He said inmates found bringing in contraband are charged to make an example that it will not be tolerated.

He added the amount of drug contraband has been greatly reduced in Menominee County Jail since K-9 Officer Avery and Nast.

According to Schoolcraft County Sheriff Paul Furman, the Schoolcraft County jail, which was built in 1957, does not have an issue with drugs coming in off the streets and entering the jail system.

He explained when new people come into the jail system, the correctional officers follow normal procedures for booking — meaning strip searches and going through the person’s belongings.

“The normal process seems to work fairly well,” he said.

In the years he has been with the sheriff’s department, Furman said he can only recall one instance several years ago where a man brought in drugs through a body cavity.

When it comes to drugs coming in through either visitors or mail, Furman said it would be impossible.

He noted Schoolcraft County Jail has no contact visits, where people have glass in-between them and communicate through phones.

All mail coming in and out of the jail are postcards and no envelops are ever used, Furman said.

“We’re pretty thorough in what we do — there’s been no problems,” he said.