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Jail's drug interdiction program featured on podcast

The Chelan County Regional Justice Center’s drug interdiction program is featured this month on a national podcast called The Shakedown.

Warden Aaron Dawson of the Morgan County Sheriff’s Office in Decatur, Ala., is the host of the program, which is sponsored by the National Institute for Jail Operations. The episode is also available on YouTube.

In the 23-minute episode, Dawson interviews jail Director Chris Sharp, Sgt. Jeremy Riggan and Corrections Deputy Jacob Lewis. The Chelan County crew talks about its concerted and creative effort to keep drugs out of the facility.

The drug interdiction program at Chelan County relies on three tools: a mail screener, a body scanner and a 6-year-old, narcotics-detecting border collie named Kait. Established more than two years ago, the drug interdiction program is lead by Lewis, Kait’s handler.

Kait is only the second K-9 in Washington being utilized by a municipal or county jail for narcotics detection. Sharp talks about the program with pride and says Kait makes very few mistakes. In fact, she has found narcotics in the mail that the mail scanner did not, he said.

While the drug interdiction program has drastically cut down on the amount of narcotics getting into the jail, it has also produced an unexpected result. Because the K-9 portion of the program is primarily community-funded, Lewis does much outreach to the community, visiting schools and community groups with Kait and spotlighting her on social media. In return, he’s been able to better educate the public about the jail and the corrections profession.

You can find The Shakedown on most podcast platforms, or watch the episode on YouTube.

Last Updated: 07/06/2022 12:00 PM

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