DRUG SEIZURES DOUBLE AT JAIL

Drug seizures at the Hamilton jail nearly doubled in one year while
the number of drug seizures made at provincial jails dropped.
Contraband drugs were found 47 times in 2000 at the
Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre, compared with 25 times in 1999.

Meanwhile, the total number of seizures at Ontario's 42 adult
correctional facilities dropped slightly to 430 last year from 436 in
1999.

Edward Almeida, president of the Hamilton jail guards union, says
that cuts to recreational time and an increase in numbers means more
prisoners have more time on their hands to dream up new ways of
smuggling in contraband.

"You're never going to get rid of contraband as long as the inmates
have nothing to do all day," he said.

According to information The Spectator obtained under the provincial
Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Ontario's jails
are one-stop shopping centres for drugs and weapons.

Just this Thursday, a visitor to the Hamilton jail was arrested after
passing 41 drinking straws stuffed with marijuana, rolling papers and
an unknown substance now being tested to an inmate through a grate in
a Plexiglas partition.

Jail staff didn't see a thing. They only found out about the exchange
when another visitor told staff about it, police said.

A 19-year-old Hamilton man has been charged.

That incident demonstrates that inmates with a will can find a way to
get virtually any contraband they want while they're behind bars --
except firearms. Guns seem to be about the only illegal items not
found in Ontario's jail system.

The contraband found in the Hamilton jail in recent years includes:

* Marijuana and cocaine smuggled in by an inmate's mother and
grandfather during visits so the inmate could sell it to other
prisoners.

* Methadone, Valium and cocaine used by a female inmate to overdose
in 1998. Another female inmate fatally overdosed in October last year.

* Heroin, crack cocaine, marijuana, hash and hash oil worth $4,500
allegedly smuggled into the jail by a prominent Hamilton defence
lawyer. He is facing five counts of possession for the purpose of
trafficking.

* Live bullets -- but no gun -- were tossed over the wall of the
jail's exercise yard and found by a guard.

Almeida says the numbers the jail submits to the Ministry of
Correctional Services each year represents a very small portion of
the items actually believed to be in the facility. Also, very small
amounts of uncovered drugs are not recorded. "They just get flushed,"
he says.

Last year, Guelph Correctional Centre recorded 77 drug seizures.
Maplehurst Correction Centre followed with 62 and Hamilton was third
with 47. In 1999, Guelph again topped the list with 116, Maplehurst
was next with 88, Rideau Correctional Centre had 27 and Hamilton came
fourth with 25.

The ministry says those numbers include street drugs as well as
prescription drugs hoarded and taken improperly.

For both last year and 1999, ministry records show drugs were seized
at every one of the province's 42 adult jails.

The most common way for drugs to come into the jail is by being
inserted into inmates' body cavities, says Almeida.

Some visitors to the jail -- friends, family, volunteers and lawyers
- -- are allowed "touch visits" where physical contact is permitted.
That's an opportunity. And inmates attending court can sometimes be
passed drugs by newly arrested prisoners they meet in the holding
cells.

And it isn't unheard of for jail guards to make extra cash by
smuggling drugs to inmates.

Metal detectors are regularly used to search for weapons in inmates'
cells, but most of the items can't be detected because they're made
plastic, says Almeida.

A melted toothbrush can be fashioned into a shiv, jail slang for a
knife, and a toilet bowl brush was once whittled into a sharp weapon.
Earlier this year, a Swiss Army knife was found on a prisoner,
Almeida says.

Last year, the Hamilton jail and Metro Toronto West Detention Centre
topped the province's list for the highest number of contraband
weapons found by guards with five each. In 23 of Ontario's 42 jails,
no weapons were found.