FRANKLIN CO., OH (WCMH) — Both Franklin County Jails will soon begin using a new technology to catch contraband being smuggled in by inmates.

It is called the SOTER Full Body Scanning System, which X-rays incoming and returning inmates.

NBC4 was at the Jackson Pike Jail for a demonstration.

Authorities said it will be much harder for inmates to smuggle in drugs and weapons after they finish training deputies in a few months to use two new body scanners.

The first thing that will happen after the jail door slams behind a county inmate is he or she will be required to step into a full-body scanner.

“It takes the entire depth of the body and changes it into 2-dimensional images, flat. So when you look at those x-ray images, you are looking for contrast, symmetry, looking for something that doesn’t fit,” said Deputy William Gee, who is training on the body scanner.

The sheriff said beyond safety issues for inmates and deputies, Ohio law only allows cavity searches if law enforcement is sure contraband is in the body. The law calls that probable cause. People charged with felonies can be searched more thoroughly than those charged with misdemeanors.

“Which presents a problem for us, because if you can’t search anybody to the same degree, items can be smuggled in,” said Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin.

This is where authorities said the body scanner shines; any inmate can be required to step through the scanner.

Deputy Chief Rick Minerd heads up the Investigative Unit for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.

“We have seen, most of the time it is narcotics sometimes pharmaceuticals. Generally small amounts that are concealable, but we have also intercepted weapons as well,” he said.

“Keep in mind these are people who are generally speaking, under arrest and have a propensity to not follow the rules of the law, so that activity does not stop once they get to the doors of the Franklin County Jail,” Minerd said.

When former Sheriff Zach Scott worked in the jail he said they intercepted a straight razor which was smuggled in by an inmate.

“We went back and looked at the tapes to see how in the world this thing could have gotten in there, and we were able to later figure out he carried in in a body cavity,” said Zach Scott.

He said they used mattresses and a stun gun to subdue the armed inmate.

The idea for body scanners came along when Scott was still the Franklin County Sheriff.

“I happened to be the one in office but this process started a long time ago,” Sheriff Baldwin said.

He said the county researched the body scanners in other state and county facilities, budgeted for them and waited for the County Commissioners to approve of them.

“The scanners cost from $125,000 and up and we picked the lower priced model,” Baldwin said. Scott said when he traveled to Colorado four years ago to see the scanners in action, they were priced around $500,000.

The sheriff said Franklin County Jail is the largest jail in the state. In total, the two Franklin County jails house 2,300 inmates.

The scanner will be used on incoming inmates and those returning from work such as kitchen duty and outside road crews.