DEAD CON'S MOM HITS DRUG FINDING

THE family of a man who died in Stony Mountain penitentiary is
questioning the findings of an inquest report.

The report on the 1996 death at the prison, released last week,
concluded that Michael Winzoski died of heart failure after a
voluntary drug overdose.

His mother, Rosalie Sanderson, doesn't believe her son took the drugs
on his own. He'd been drug-free for two to three years before his Dec.
14, 1996 death, Sanderson said.

The inquest report, authored by provincial court Judge Ray Wyant, said
Winzoski had been clean but there was also testimony that he began
using drugs again in the days leading up to his death.

"I can't believe he came to that conclusion," Sanderson said. "It's so
hard to believe, when (the judge) had everything in front of him."

Wyant's recommendations came 18 months after the inquest ended in
December 1999. The inquiry was delayed for two years due to an RCMP
undercover investigation into drug smuggling at the federal prison. As
a result of the investigation, two inmates and a penitentiary employee
pleaded guilty to smuggling drugs.

Wyant made 20 recommendations, including tightening the drug-screening
process for visitors and more structured inmate counts. Winzoski lay
dead in his bunk for as long as 13 hours before he was found.