STRIP SEARCHES NOT ENOUGH TO STOP PRISON DRUG FLOW

Inquiry Hears How Smuggling Led To Death

Despite strip searches, inmates have still been able to smuggle
contraband into the Calgary Correctional Centre, the centre's director
testified in court on Wednesday.

The testimony was part of the ongoing fatality inquiry into the death
of Dale Patrick Woodcock, 43, who was found unresponsive in his cell
on June 4, 2005.

A toxicologist determined the cause of death was an
overdose.

"Obviously, our first line of defence is a thorough strip search . . .
on every offender," Ed Vandal, director at the centre, told Judge
Terry Semenuk and lawyers for Woodcock's wife, the City of Calgary and
the Crown prosecutor's office.

"The strip searches are very thorough."

The strip searches require the offender to disrobe, then follow the
instructions of corrections centre staff.

No physical contact is made between the offender and the staff once
clothes have been removed. If necessary, offenders are taken to the
hospital for a cavity search to be performed by a medical doctor,
Vandal added.

He added there are no plans to change the way strip searches are
conducted.

However, Vandal said changes have been made to procedures since
Woodcock's death.

The Correctional Service of Alberta recently obtained a drug dog and
getting a second dog is a possibility. The dogs -- which can be used
to sniff drugs in cells or on offenders -- were previously contracted
from the Calgary Police Service or the RCMP, said Vandal.

He added all offenders, including intermittent servers who serve time
only on weekends, are now seen upon arrival by registered nurses at
the Calgary facility.

At the time of Woodcock's death, inmates had been smuggling in drugs
by placing them in plastic capsules from Kinder Surprise chocolate
eggs, then inserting them in their rectums, longtime correctional
centre worker Robert Milton said he was told by an inmate.