Sheriff Fontes Wanting To Get X-Ray Machine For Jail

Cocke County Sheriff Armando Fontes is wanting the Cocke County Commission to pony up $150,000 to buy an x-ray machine to be used at the entrance to the jail. Drugs have been finding their way into the jail via outside sources. The sheriff’s department recently found two holes in the outside wall of the jail that were being used to pass drugs through the wall and into the jail cell inside. An 8 foot high chain link fence topped with razor wire was recently installed 6 feet out from the building’s exterior. The sheriff says that will help, but drugs are getting into the jail by other means as well…including via his own employees. The sheriff says he has had to arrest some sheriff’s department employees who have been caught sneaking drugs to inmates. The sheriff says some people who have no drug arrests on their record are being paid by family members to get arrested for a smaller crime, then smuggle drugs into the facility in bodily orafices when they enter the jail. An x-ray machine would help combat that. A female inmate died in the jail back in October after she overdosed on drugs that were smuggled into the facility.