DRUG DETECTION EQUIPMENT ALARMS VISITORS AT PRISONS

Calrinda, Iowa (AP) - After more than a dozen trips to visit his dad in
prison, 6-year-old Kyle Alstott knew the drill.

Kyle and his mom would walk through the metal detector at the Clarinda
Correctional Facility, then stop in front of a drug scanning device in a
4-foot-tall oak cabinet. The guards would ask Kyle to pull out the pockets
of his jeans and hold his hands out while they swept him with a vacuum-like
instrument containing a slip of filter paper.

One previous visits, Kyle watched a green light go on, declaring him
drug-free within seven seconds. But on March 15, a flashing red light went
off, indicating cocaine residue had been detected.

Holding fast to prison rules, guards ordered Kyle, his mother and his aunt
to leave. The youngster began to sob.

The boy's mother, April Alstott, argued with guards and pleaded with them
to retest them. Forty-five minutes later, the Alstotts were told they could
return.

But "what's so maddening is that my son's near tears every time we go there
because he's so scared that we're going to have to use it," Alstott said.

Alstott is among about two dozen visitors to Iowa state prisons this spring
who have complained that they were wrongly denied visits because of the
device. The visitors include ministers, grandmothers and children.

"It's absolutely impossible for me to prove my innocence," said Barbara
Ackley, whose 7-year-old granddaughter tested positive during a visit in
February.

Iowa officials have installed a $42,000 Ion Track Itemiser ITMS in all nine
state prisons to scan visitors for drugs or bombs. The machine is also used
in airports, at U.S. embassies and along state highways.

Prison officials acknowledged the screening has yielded false readings but
said such mistakes are extremely rare and are caused by human error.

Supporters say the device can keep drugs out of prison without the need for
humiliating strip searches.

"It's no more invasive than handling a paper towel or a Kleenex and handing
it back," said Terry Mapes, deputy superintendent of the prison.

Under a policy enacted this year, all visitors who failed the test - along
with those accompanying them - were to be banned for a month and then could
only see the inmate they wanted to visit through a plate of glass for the
next 90 days.

After a number of complaints, however, Iowa prison officials said earlier
this month that they would allow immediate retesting and give the warden
more discretion in allowing non-contact visits in disputed cases.

"If we make a mistake with the testing of the machine, and we have, we've
changed their status" and reinstated their visiting privileges, said
Clarinda superintendent Mark Lund. "If we don't think we've made a mistake
we don't change their status."

Joanne Arsenault, marketing vice president for the Itemiser's manufacturer,
Ion Track Instruments of Wilmington, Mass., said the company regularly
trains corrections officers in how to use the equipment.

Civil libertarians worry that the test results could be used against the
visitors. "We want to be assured that it's not going to be maintained in
some database," said Randall Wilson, legal director of the Iowa Civil
Liberties Union.

Prison officials said the test results are used solely to determine
visiting privileges, but acknowledged they would release the information to
law enforcement if asked.