Sheriff’s Office may need to divert appropriated funds to complete purchase
By Randy Arrington
LURAY, Dec. 16 — After numerous requests for funding to support the purchase of a body scanner at the Page County Jail, Sheriff Chad Cubbage finally received an allocation of $56,951 from the Page County Board of Supervisors during Monday night’s meeting. However, supervisors stipulated that the sheriff would need to find the remaining funds within his own budget to complete the $171,000 purchase.
The quote Sheriff Cubbage presented to the board last month from Tek84 showed a base cost of $139,000 for an Intercept Whole Body Security Scanning System, with an optional FDA-approved integrated Temperature Scanner for an additional $20,000. Shipping, installation and calibration total $3,000. An eight-year warranty tacks on another $8,900. The quote, with mark downs on the unit itself and the optional temperature scanner, expires at the end of the month. List prices total $268,000.
While discussing the potential allocation of local monies from the general fund, supervisors and staff broke down what they saw as “available funds” that could be put toward the body scanner from within the sheriff’s current budget, including:
- $54,630 — CIP funds allocated to the Sheriff’s Office remain to be spent.
- $35,000 — Bonus to PCSO from Pay Tel.
- $20,00 — State forfeiture funds.
- $4,000 — Remaining federal forfeiture funds.
The sheriff’s initial request to the county was for $135,900, with only the $35,000 from Pay Tel being earmarked for the body scanner. With staff’s recommendation to use all available CIP funds in the sheriff’s budget along with the Pay Tel bonus, the county request was lowered to $81,270. However, supervisors then pointed to available forfeiture funds that they felt could also be contributed to the purchase of the body scanner.
Sheriff Cubbage stated a different viewpoint in a letter to the board.
“At present, the current asset forfeiture balance has been appropriated for essential resources that otherwise would need to be covered by the county budget. Some of these allocations are critical to ensure that personnel have the necessary safety equipment to do their jobs effectively,” the letter states. Sheriff Cubbage also clearly states in the letter that “asset forfeiture funds are unavailable for the purchase of the body scanner.”
Although it has been mentioned for many years, the drive to purchase a body scanner at the jail was heightened following the May 27, 2021 death of 26-year-old Cody Shotwell Brown of Stanley, who was in custody at the Page County Jail.
“This claim arises from the …failure of Page County Jail and its affiliates to find, prevent and/or remove fentanyl, and other controlled substances from the jail,” a June 15,2021 notice reads announcing an intent to file. Brown’s mother filed a civil lawsuit in the Page County Circuit Court on Jan. 14, 2022 naming six defendants and seeking $1.85 million in damages for the “wrongful death” of her son while incarcerated in the Page County Jail.
“Brown ingested, inhaled or consumed fentanyl while in the custody of Page County Jail,” the lawsuit claims, on the day before his death. The civil suit states that not only did Page County officials fail to prevent illegal drugs from coming into the jail, but they also failed to “ensure the availability of emergency medical equipment and/or treatments, to include naloxone” as well as “failing to respond to medical emergencies in a timely fashion.”
The smuggling of drugs into the local jail by both inmates (work release) and visitors through a body cavity has been an issue for some time at the jail, and it is believed to have potentially played a role in the drugs that killed Brown.
For more information on the Page County Sheriff’s Office,
visit https://pagesheriff.com/
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Maybe the rehab people, out at the vacation hotspot next to the creek and under the lovely foliage, could help buy one of these machine and rent it to the PCSP.
Why is the jail being blamed for what somebody willingly did to himself anyway??
I mean lets think about this a minute here, a full body scanner would be great is every inmate entering the facility were required to pass through it. However, lets look at the obvious for a moment. Not every inmate coming into or back into the family is gonna have do the full body scan. Trustees (mainly outside at jail) can come in and out all day long and not be searched once, so do we really think that they are gonna use this expensive fund every time. My vote would be doubtful the trustees will continue to bypass it. My next thought why even waste all that money on something that isn’t gonna be used correctly from jump on each inmate returning into the facility. Pretty sure we have other thing that would be used correctly if purchased unlike that 100k device. It also falls back to guards not doing their jobs correctly cause who wants look at butt hole, and again trustees just bypassing even being stripped. So not gonna prevent the problem its being purchased for. Also I find it very distrurbing that all new hires of the sheriffs office isn’t required to do a pre-employment screening like normall most job of the sort do, but they gonna test inmates everyday but cant test staff ever. Little one sided there don’t ya think, all employees should be doing pre and randoms like inmates doing randoms. Its actually appaulling how many deputies high and harrassing evey day joe on probation because he can. Something needs to be done about the sheriffs office and these two faced procedures. How comePCSO one of the only police forces in va that doesnt even require a polygraph… someone need to make them accountable! Rant Over, i think some will see the wrongs in this than the few that brown nose mr cubbae to keep em safe.
Yeah Anon. If the drug treatment hell hole, oh, excuse me, I mean center, can plan for Sch 1/2 drugs to be snuck in and pacified with Narcan on the nightstands, then that’s the way forward. Just put Narcan on the jail inmate’s nightstands!! Who knew??