Dogs sniff for drugs to keep jail inmates safe

Two new hires at Kitsap County Jail could care less about getting paychecks. Instead, George and Andy live to engage in their favorite activities — chasing a slobbery tennis ball and playing tug-a-war with a squeaky chew toy.

George is an energetic, 70 pound yellow Labrador while Andy is a 17-month-old social, golden retriever. The canine cops were brought to the jail to do potentially life-saving work — sniff out fentanyl and other illicit drugs that make their way into the detention center. Payoff for the pups locating hidden drugs is getting to play with their favorite toy.

“I’m ecstatic that we have this new tool in the facility that will lower the likelihood of anyone getting hurt or end up dead because of fentanyl. That’s my biggest concern,” said Penelope Sapp, chief of corrections and head of the jail.

Duties for the dogs include patrolling the lock-up facility to sniff out methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin and fentanyl. “Every housing unit is searched throughout the week. If we suspect that there are drugs in a unit or that somebody has them then we will send in a dog to see if they find anything,” Sapp said. Searches are also conducted in the booking area where arriving inmates are processed, the laundry room and kitchen.

Drugs in jail

Surprisingly, a fair number of drugs find their way inside the jail. About once a month, corrections officers discover drugs. Last year, there were 22 overdoses inside the jail. At times, multiple overdoses occur simultaneously. “That’s because drugs got in and one person shared it with others. They were all overdosing because they hadn’t done drugs for a while because they had been incarcerated. “I think those numbers speak to why we want to do this,” Sapp said.

Last year, one inmate died from drug use. Hours before release, Dana Lynn McGranahan of Renton was found non-responsive in her cell. Lifesaving efforts were unable to revive the 43-year-old. The medical examiner ruled the cause of death as acute combined fentanyl and methamphetamine intoxication. McGranahan was believed to have ingested the drugs prior to being booked, jail officials said.

Fortunately, those other 22 inmate drug ODs had better outcomes – they all survived. “When we suspect that somebody is overdosing on fentanyl or opioids, they often are turning colors and not responsive. We will give them a dose of Narcan. We spray it up their nose. Often it takes 3, 4 or 5 shots of Narcan before we start seeing the person coming back. We’ve been fortunate enough to reverse (overdoses) and bring them out of it,” Sapp said.

Narcan is a nasal spray or injection that rapidly reverses an opioid overdose. It blocks the effects of opioids and can quickly restore the breathing of an overdose victim, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Training the canines

“Who doesn’t love furry little officers?” Sapp said with a smile.

Before coming to the jail, the dogs and their handlers underwent weeks of training by Ken Pavlick of Pacific Coast K9. Recently, Pavlick prepared a black lab to work for Poulsbo police and provided the State Patrol with most of its canines. “Whether they do explosive detection for the ferries or narcotics detection, they came from us,” Pavlick said.

The dogs take 200-240 hours of training, he said. “All dogs are different. You can’t teach a class of second-graders to read all at the same rate, right? Same with dogs,” the trainer said.

George and Andy are not trained to bite if they find drugs. Instead, they are non-threatening and social. “These dogs are being deployed more in a health and safety role than an actual law enforcement role,” Pavlick said.

To do police narcotic work the drug teams have to become certified; they are required to search rooms, vehicles and an outdoor area and locate a significant percentage of “hides,” or caches of drugs.

Training involves the canines and their handlers – for George, that is corrections officer Paul Haney and for Andy, officer Merile Montgomery. Both officers are lifelong dog lovers who jumped at the chance to partner with a pup. The dogs live with their handlers.

Haney describes his paw-tner as “always ‘Go, Go, Go.’ He loves to work. He’s on a mission. Even when he’s in the house he wants to search everything.”

Montgomery said Andy is always sociable. “He just wants to be loved on,” she said. “He’s very smart and obedient. He loves to chase and retrieve his tennis ball. He would do it all day if he had the choice.”

Pavlick said with a chuckle, “It’s way harder to train handlers than the dogs. Dogs are constantly communicating to us as humans, but we don’t speak the same language. You have to learn to interpret what the dog is telling you by body language changes in behavior. It takes time to recognize that,” Pavlick said

Getting drugs in jail

Last year, about 5,000 inmates were housed in the two-story jail facility, adjacent to the courthouse in Port Orchard. The average daily population is 332. Inmates are held on misdemeanor or felony charges and serving sentences of less than a year.

Drugs are smuggled into jail several ways. The most common is for a person prior to being booked to place drugs in a plastic bag and swallow it. After nature takes its course, the contraband is eliminated and ready for use. To combat that technique, two years ago the sheriff’s office installed a body scanner, similar to those used at airports. The unit is like an x-ray machine that detects a foreign body in a person’s internal organs or external body cavity, Sapp said.

If the scanner detects swallowed drugs, the inmate is taken to a hospital to either have them removed or to pass naturally. The scanner, however, is not fail-safe. A corrections officer can misread a scan, Sapp said. For example, an ingested bag can be mistaken for an air bubble. Clever inmates also come up with ways to defeat the scanner.

Drugs also have gotten into the jail by being tossed over the wall surrounding the facility, Sapp said. “Inmates communicate with their loved ones and say, ‘Hey, I’m in a certain housing unit. If you throw a bunch of fentanyl pills into the rec yard (which has netting over it), some of them will fall through.’ That’s what happened last year. Somebody threw probably 100 fentanyl pills into the yard. Some of them did fall through the netting. We have since triple netted that so it can’t happen again,” Sapp said.

In the past, some letters sent to inmates were soaked in drugs. Once the letter was received, the recipient could chew the paper and get high. That technique was defeated by not giving physical mail to inmates. Now, all letters are scanned, and inmates read them off an electronic tablet. Likewise, visitors do not meet with inmates, instead they talk virtually.

Once narcotics are in the detention center there are numerous ways inmates conceal them. “Usually, they’ll put it somewhere in their mattress or blanket. They also put it in some kind of container – maybe a candy wrapper, Cup of Noodles, or a shampoo container—everything that we know they’re supposed to have. They get pretty clever with where they hide stuff,” Sapp said.

Before a canine is sent into an area to search for contraband officers will do an inspection looking for obvious drugs. “We don’t want the dog to find a large amount of drugs, like powder fentanyl. Fentanyl is potent. If the dog was to get its nose right up to it and inhales it there’s a possibility the animal could actually overdose.

“Obviously, we want to be, be mindful that our new furry staff members stay safe,” she said.