How do drugs get into the McHenry County Jail?

Just the other day I was thinking about the drug problem in McHenry County. Not just in McHenry County. In the McHenry County Jail.

How could drugs get into a jail?

My first thought was that it had to be employees who were bringing them in. That ought to be pretty risky, don't you think? I mean, what if you, an employee, get caught bringing in drugs. Then you swap your Corrections uniform for an orange suit...

Or do you? Which MCSO employee has been disciplined, more than once, for too close an association with gang members in the McHenry County Jail. Has it involved drugs? Or just a little smooching in a corner away from security cameras?

And then I learned that corrections officers were not allowed to strip-search arriving prisoners. Some prisoners could conceal drugs on their persons that would be missed in the general search allowed at the jail booking office. What? Say what? They could secret drugs in their genital areas, and corrections officers would never find them.

Now comes the United States Supreme Court and its decision on Monday that "Jailers may perform invasive strip-searches on people arrested even for minor offenses...", according to the Associated Press. A New Jersey man was arrested after his wife was stopped for a DUI charge. In the case of that New Jersey man, police arrested him on a warrant related to an unpaid fine on a traffic charge. Even though the fine had been paid, the warrant hadn't been canceled.

Be alert to this problem, just in case you are ever stopped and told there is a warrant out for you. And, if you think there could be circumstances that could result in a warrant, find out ahead of time. If a warrant should have been quashed, ALWAYS follow through and make sure it gets done.

Previously, I've written about a police chief in Glendale, Colo. who told a young female motorist that he'd get her speeding charge canceled. Two days later he got fired, and a warrant was issued when she didn't show up in court. Later I stopped her, and I had to take her in, when Dispatch told me of the warrant. She sat in jail from Friday night until court on Monday, because none of her friends had $50.00 for her bond.