The state Department of Corrections’ new search unit discovered a large amount of contraband, including cellphones, drugs and alcohol, at a prison in southeast Oklahoma this week, the DOC announced Thursday.
A special operations unit known as Strike Force conducted a surprise search at Mack Alford Correctional Center in Stringtown for four hours Wednesday and found 19 cellphones, 23 phone chargers, 15 lighters, 10 hands-free devices, about six grams of marijuana, two screwdrivers, three syringes, four mP3 players, about eight grams of tobacco and 100 ounces of alcohol inside five 20-ounce bottles, according to a DOC news release.
The Strike Force team included eight K-9 units in addition to correctional officers and emergency response members, the release says.
The team deployed new CellSense towers to detect the phones, and also used deep tissue scanners and two dogs in the search, it says.
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The Tulsa World reported in December on the DOC’s efforts to revamp its K-9 units, which included training dogs to find cellphones in prisons.
DOC Director Joe Allbaugh said in the news release that the agency’s efforts to find contraband “are only going to increase” as inmates attempt to be more creative in hiding items. The DOC said some of the items were found inside a wall.
“The attempts to conceal contraband seem to be getting more desperate and creative,” Allbaugh said. “Teams have found items in ceilings, locking mechanisms of doors, books and now in the wall.
“One thing I will promise the inmates — we are going to continue our all-out assault on removing the contraband from our facilities and places we contract with. The inmates need to know there are no secrets in prison.”
DOC staff conducted a similar search at Dick Conner Correctional Center in Hominy during January using a CellSense tower, which is a 7-foot-tall portable device that scans inmates and housing units. Deep tissue scanners, officials say, help search inmates for items not found during a pat-down search.
The DOC said in January that all Oklahoma prisons would have access to a CellSense tower by February.
