Board Approves Jail Body Scanner, Drug Dog

Milwaukee County Jail. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office (MCSO) will get a new body scanner and additional drug dog as the agency tries to get a handle on dangerous drugs being smuggled into the Milwaukee County Jail (MCJ).

The Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Thursday to provide the authority the MCSO needs to purchase the scanner and dog. The sheriff’s office plans to use a $252,380 appropriation to pay Racine County to house inmates when the Milwaukee jail exceeds its population capacity. The MCSO no longer believes it will need to transfer persons to Racine. The new body scanner is expected to cost $239,880, and the new dog $12,500.

“This important vote could not have come at a better time, as the county jail’s current scanner is outdated, years past its life expectancy, and is expected to fail entirely in the very near future,” said MCSO Chief Deputy Brian Barkow. “More than anything, we strive to protect the people in our care and preserve their safety and dignity by removing barriers to their wellness, such as substances that our current scanner cannot detect.”

New synthetic drugs, like fentanyl, are posing a problem for the jail because they are much easier to disguise and smuggle into a secure facility. Barkow previously told Urban Milwaukee the drugs can be liquified and put on a small piece of paper, making them very difficult to detect.

Persons in custody at the jail are overdosing on the drugs being smuggled in. In 2025, two men died while in MCSO custody. Narcan, a drug used to reverse the effects of opioid overdose, was administered to both men shortly before they passed away, according to the MCSO.

Officials cannot say whether these men died of an overdose. That is a determination the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner must make. The cause of death remains sealed, for now, as both cases are still under investigation by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department. Under state law, law enforcement agencies cannot investigate their own in-custody deaths.

“Since 2020, NARCAN has been administered 50 times in the MCJ to occupants exhibiting apparent overdose symptoms,” the MCSO said in a statement. “Both the scanner and the K-9 team, which should be in place in the coming months, could help save lives in the MCJ by preventing illicit substances and other contraband from entering the jail and detecting such substances before they make their way into the possession of jail occupants.”

Sup. Sky Z. Capriolo sponsored the resolution to provide funding for the new body scanner and drug dog. She previously told Urban Milwaukee the resolution was an opportunity for the board to try to improve conditions in the jail and respond to a serious life safety threat there.

The board has often heard directly from family members and the community following deaths in the jail, Capriolo said. “The message we get from them is very clear: please make the jail a safer place.”

A third-party audit of the jail was conducted in 2024 after a series of suicides and deaths there in recent years. The auditor, Texas-based Creative Corrections, LLC, found several issues with the jail’s suicide prevention policies. The audit also identified that sometimes jail pod doors are “left unsecured” during maintenance and that this “creates a significant vulnerability and increases the potential for… contraband smuggling.”

The board voted 15 to three to approve the funds transfer, with supervisors Juan Miguel Martinez, Sequanna Taylor and Marcelia Nicholson voting against the transfer.

Sup. Justin Bielinski, who previously voted against the item at committee, changed his vote when it become before the full board. He told his colleagues he supported the expense as a response to a life safety issue. He also said it will will help MCSO determine how the drugs are getting into the facility.

“At least we’ll know also if it ends up being staff bringing it in,” Bielinski said. “This will will help us to know that.”

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