GRANDMA: DRUG SCAN IS FAULTY

A 68-Year-Old Woman Says She Was Shocked When An Ion Scanning
Device Tested Her Positive For LSD.

Clarinda, Ia. - Inga Henry, 68, of Audubon simply wanted to visit her
inmate grandson at the Clarinda state prison.

But Henry said she was shocked and humiliated after learning an ion
scanning detector showed she tested positive for LSD, a hallucinogenic
drug, on her hands and clothes. She was ordered to immediately leave
the prison on March 4 and was banned from returning for a month.

Henry angrily told the Iowa Board of Corrections, which met here
Friday, that the machine made a mistake. Henry said she does take
medication for high-blood pressure and arthritis. But she carried a
lab report from a Carroll medical center showing she didn't have LSD
in her system last month.

"I am upset," said Henry, who complained that correctional officers
wouldn't listen after she explained she was taking prescription
medicine. "It was like I was in prison myself. I felt bad."

Board of Corrections Chairwoman Suellen Overton of Council Bluffs
thanked Henry for her comments. But neither Overton nor any other
board members offered her an apology Friday. After the board meeting,
Henry volunteered to be checked again by the ion scanner and tested
negative for drugs.

Henry spoke after Iowa Corrections Director W.L. "Kip" Kautzky
defended use of the ion scanner, which is being used to screen
visitors at all nine state prisons. The goal is to curb the smuggling
of drugs into prisons. The issue is particularly important to prison
security because about 75 percent to 80 percent of inmates have a
history of drug or alcohol problems.

Corrections board member Walter Reed of Waterloo said critics of the
ion scanners have told him that drugs have been smuggled into prisons
by state employees. But prison officials said they are prohibited by
law from using ion scanners to check employees.

Although civil libertarians have questioned the use of ion scanners,
Kautzky said courts have ruled that visiting a prison is a privilege,
not a right. The electronic scanner, which detects traces of drugs, is
far less intrusive than requiring visitors to disrobe and be searched,
he added.

Clarinda prison Superintendent Mark Lund said more than 2,000 visitors
have been checked here for drug residue on their hands and clothes the
past four months. Only 1 percent, or about 22 positive test results,
have been confirmed. About 10 additional positive tests were thrown
out because of human error or because the results stemmed from
prescription medication, he said.

Lund did not want to specifically discuss Henry's case, but he said
the prison's only positive test for LSD is being scientifically reviewed.

Capt. Paul Schroeder, a correctional supervisor who works with the ion
scanner, said most prison visitors are initially apprehensive about
being checked for drug traces. "But they get used to it. We have
people now who don't even think twice about it," he said.

Barbara Hays-Ackley of Mercer, Mo., whose son is a Clarinda inmate,
also protested to the corrections board Friday. She said she tested
positive for traces of marijuana on her hands on Feb. 13. She suspects
she probably picked up the drug residue at a Clarinda motel.