Ohio prisons ramping up fight against flow of contraband

By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS
Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Ohio has ramped up its efforts to detect contraband in prisons, using everything from new X-ray body scanners to anti-drone technology. The prisons agency is putting the measures in place as drugs and other illicit goods flood inside, even when visitation was curbed during the pandemic. The scope of the contraband problem was underscored last month when a woman was arrested on suspicion of helping smuggle hundreds of sheets of drug-soaked paper into at least five Ohio prisons. Annette Chambers-Smith is director of the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction. She says the anti-contraband measure is aimed at anyone who enters prisons.