9 Investigates: Inmates in Osceola County caught with drugs in cell

OSCEOLA COUNTY, Fla. — 9 Investigates found out an inmate in the Osceola County Jail was caught hiding drugs inside her body for days.

According to someone inside the jail, the inmate brought it in and traded it with another inmate.

Correctional officers said the problems stems from lack of manpower and overworked staffers.

But jail officials said the drugs didn't show up on the body scanner.

A photo from the jail allegedly shows Brandy Hodil sharing drugs with inmate Tiffany Crosby in a holding cell.

Hodil came in as a remand from court on April 6, but officers didn't find drugs on her until more than 48 hours later on April 9.

It was more than 25 grams of crystal meth.

Crosby had to be seen by a nurse after taking the drugs, authorities said.

In January, Channel 9 reported a similar image of an inmate shooting up what appeared to be heroin inside his Osceola County Jail cell.

He had to be taken to the hospital because of an overdose.

Two days later, another inmate had 19 bags that tested positive for cannabis and six pills that tested positive for Ecstasy.

At the time, jail leadership said they had to retrain staff on using this body scanner because inmates were able to go through it with their hands down covering their groin area where they smuggled in contraband.

Jail staff said that a company called Securepass provided additional training, but the body scanner is not infallible.

They say staffing is not to blame.

They hired 17 officers since January, but their current staffing level only brings them up by one officer since then.

Jail staff said they are working to reach a point where they hire enough people to have no vacancies and there are currently a lot of applicants in cue.

They said overtime is down since January and most the overtime is voluntary.

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