LOOK WHERE THOSE CONTROVERSIAL FULL-BODY AIRPORT SECURITY SCANNERS ARE GOING

The TSA is transferring the full-body scanners to prisons around the country

Prisons are now the beneficiaries of complaints that the full-boy scanners at airports are too invasive.

WHERE TSA’S INVASIVE SCANNERS ARE NOW?
The Backscatter Advanced Imaging Technology scanners are being transferred to state prisons

By Andy Medici

Federal Times
May 16, 2014

The controversial airport screening machines that angered privacy advocates and members of Congress for its revealing images are finding new homes in state and local prisons across the country, according to the Transportation Security Administration.

So far, 154 of the machines have been transferred to prisons in states including Iowa, Virginia and Louisiana. It’s a good fit because privacy concerns raised by airport passengers do not apply in many cases to prisoners, according to TSA.

Arkansas received five of the scanners in early May for use by local sheriffs as well, according to TSA. The remaining 96 scanners are still being stored in the warehouses of scanner manufacturer Rapiscan.

TSA will continue working to transfer the remaining machines, according to the agency.

“TSA and the vendor are working with other government agencies interested in receiving the units for their security mission needs and for use in a different environment,” TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein said.

TSA owned about 250 of the screening machines at its peak — valued at about $40 million — before removing them from airports in the first half of 2013 in response to pressure over the images it created of passengers.

Members of Congress had also raised issues about the safety of the machines and their scanning technology, asking the National Academy of Sciences to explore whether people are exposed to unsafe levels of radiation during the process.