SUMTER COUNTY, S.C. — An investigation is ongoing after a Sumter-Lee Detention Center correctional officer was charged with conspiring with an inmate and his mother to operate a contraband ring.
And now, authorities have a new tool to prevent these types of crimes from happening in the future.
Former corrections officer Ta-Kayla Roach was charged with conspiring with an inmate, Anthony Bradley Jr., and his mother, Dianna Jackson, to operate the ring.
Authorities said Jackson paid money to Roach to smuggle a cell phone into the jail for her son. Jackson is charged with conspiring with her son and Roach to influence contraband and providing multiple payments to Roach totaling more than $1,800.
"It all started late summer," said Major Randell Stewart of the Sumter County Sheriff's Office. "So, August going into September, we officially opened an internal investigation."
Major Stewart said the officer knew the inmate before she started her employment in February. Stewart said the arrest came after multiple anonymous and internal tips from officials and inmates and after looking into the texts, call logs, and social media.
"We had actually recovered over a course of several weeks three separate cellular devices that have been snuck into the jail," Major Stewart said.
Tips about tobacco, marijuana, and other illicit drugs were reported, but none were found. Major Stewart suspects the drugs were consumed before the investigation.
To help combat contraband entering the facility, Sumter County Sheriff Anthony Dennis purchased a Sonter RS, X-Ray scanner in October.
"It's very similar to what all the major prisons in the state use," Major Stewart said. "Something used similar to what you might see at an airport. You stand on a platform, it slides back and forth very quickly, just a few seconds, and it does a non-intrusive full body scan so you don't necessarily have to do a hands-on pat-down and it eliminates the need for an internal body cavity check."
The system takes about 10 seconds to scan an inmate through properly, checking for contraband that couldn't be found during a pat body check.
Sergeant Crystal Isaac is the radiation safety officer at the jail. She said the scanner prevents officers from missing something that could have been ingested or hidden inside the inmate's body.
"I think this is a good step into helping eliminate contraband being brought into the facility from inmates coming off of the streets," Sergeant Isaac said.
The system cost nearly $130,000 and is only in two local jails in the Midlands including Sumter-Lee and in Orangeburg.