The St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Office has some new equipment aimed at keeping the jail safer for everyone.
Sheriff Becket Breaux says the new Body Inspection System is state of the art, and can allow deputies to see any contraband - weapons or drugs, for instance - hidden on or in an inmate.
The high resolution x-ray transmission imaging system can even show if an inmate has hidden something in a body cavity, he said.
Deputies are doing their best to keep the jail drug-free so inmates who have addiction issues can try to recover, and this will help in that aim, he said.
"Everybody makes mistakes, but want to make sure it is safe for you, and it is safe for the people upstairs," Breaux explained.
The person stands on a platform and they go through a machine that displays an image that allows deputies to see any foreign object on the individual. It cost $130,000 but "that's a small price to pay to have it safe for everyone," the sheriff said.
Breaux said he hopes that machine means people don't try to bring contraband into the jail anymore, and that would be good, too.
After seeing what it can do, Breaux said he doesn't "know how we got along without it."
