PHOENIX — When Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan announced jail employees would no longer be scanned for contraband or drugs, he gave a simple reason for his decision.
“We hire the best employees on the planet, and I trust every single one of them.”
However, experts and the families of overdose victims said the decision doesn’t make sense and puts the entire county jail system at risk.
ABC15 has also discovered more than 180 detention officers have been placed on the “Brady” list, which tracks officials with histories of dishonesty, criminal activity, and other integrity concerns.
The list also includes Sheriff Sheridan.
SHERIFF SHERIDAN’S ANNOUNCEMENT
Sheridan, a former MCSO executive under Joe Arpaio, took office at the beginning of the year.
He made the decision to stop scanning employees on January 14.
“This isn’t rocket science,” said Alix McLearen, a clinical psychologist and former officer with the federal prison system. “You have a very easy, already-purchased way to take avenues of potential harm and shut it down. And it is so minimally intrusive for the staff members to experience it that defies logic to chuck it out the window without suitable replacement.”
McLearen, who rose to the top ranks within the U.S. Bureau of Prison, said scanning employees is extremely common in large jail and prison systems.
When fully staffed, Maricopa County has more than 2,200 detention officers.
“There’s a lot of employees,” McLearen said. “I think it would be hard to have an in-depth relationship with every one of them to have established a level of trust.”
Sheridan declined ABC15’s request for an interview for this report.
Instead, the sheriff released a prerecorded three-minute video statement:
“For far too long, we’ve treated them like suspects instead of the dedicated professionals they are,” Sheridan said. “The facts are the facts. Most of the contraband that comes into our jails doesn’t come from the men and women who served there. Studies show that the majority comes from visitors, mail, and even contractors.”
According to experts and studies, jail staff are one of the most common ways that contraband and drugs get into jails and prisons.
In a survey of 301 prisons inside six states, researchers found that in 2018, staff were reported for contraband violations more than visitors.
“That is something that happens, and it isn’t just drugs,” McLearen said. “And staff, if they aren’t screened, can bring in all manner of things.”
OVERDOSE VICTIM FAMILY SPEAKS
Lisa Espinoza lost her 31-year-old son to an overdose-related death at Maricopa County’s Tower jail.
Larry Ogle Jr. was found in his cell foaming at the mouth.
The autopsy ruled the cause of death for Espinoza’s son to be “aspiration of foreign body in setting of fentanyl intoxication.”
“I don’t feel like I got any answers about how those drugs were obtained,” she said.
Espinoza’s son died on Jan. 8, 2023.
Just three days later, former Sheriff Paul Penzone called a major press conference to announce that a detention officer had been arrested for working with inmates to smuggle fentanyl and methamphetamines into the Lower Buckeye Jail.
The officer, Andres Salazar, has since been convicted and sentenced to prison.
During his 2023 press conference, Penzone said he would require every staff member to be scanned in order to enter county jail facilities.
“If we truly want to be a drug-free safe jail system, then we have to take every step possible,” said Penzone, who spent millions to buy and install scanners at every jail facility. “And that means our employees have to become comfortable with the idea that we are checking them too as they enter.”
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There’s no evidence to show that Salazar brought in drugs connected to the death of Espinoza’s son.
But she believes his arrest proves that officers are a key source of the drugs inside the jails.
“It was three days (after my son’s death), actually. And I was like, ‘I knew it! That’s the reason,'” Espinoza said. “That’s the reason these drugs have been getting into the jails….That’s the reason. That’s my answer. The deputies themselves are taking it in.”
BRADY LIST FILES
Maricopa County’s ‘Brady’ list includes more than 180 detention officers, past and present.
As part of a past reporting project, ABC15 has disciplinary records for more than 120 of those detention officers.
The records show officers have been repeatedly caught lying, committing criminal acts, having sex with detainees, and smuggling contraband and drugs.
In 2011, a trio of detention officers were accused of working with a drug cartel to smuggle people and drugs into the Valley, records show.
At the time, Maricopa County Attorney Bill Montgomery said, “No one is above the law. And apparently, no one is above the reach of the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico.”
An MCSO spokesperson said there are currently 13 detention officers on the “Brady” list who are still employed by the county.
Contact ABC15 Chief Investigator Dave Biscobing at Dave@ABC15.com.
