LOCKDOWN ENDS AT CITY JAIL AS DRUG PROBE CONTINUES

Officials Say Inmate Planned To Traffic Ingested Drugs

Life at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention centre should return to normal
today after a six-day lockdown of inmates was lifted yesterday.

The lockdown was ordered late last Thursday when an inmate became ill
after ingesting a quantity of drugs he allegedly intended to traffic
into the facility, which houses 500 inmates.

The Ottawa police drug unit continues to investigate the individual,
who is expected to remain hospitalized for several more days.

During the lockdown, each inmate in the facility was subjected to at
least one strip search by the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team.
Visitation rights were cancelled and inmates were confined to their
cells 24 hours a day.

By midday yesterday, the minimum and maximum security wings, along
with the young offenders section, had been reopened. The three areas
amount to 70 per cent of the prisoner population.

Late in the day, the lockdown was also lifted in the remaining 30 per
cent, returning the facility to full operation.

Ottawa police, meanwhile, would only say they are assisting jail staff
in the investigation. Police said the substance they recovered from
the inmate has been sent for analysis and they are looking at whether
more than one person could have been involved in the apparent
smuggling attempt.

"Our investigation keeps rolling," said Staff Sgt. Marc Pinault.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional
Services said the various wings of the facility were only opened after
each cell and each area had been searched to the satisfaction of staff.

"We only reopened every area once our search had been completed," said
Bruce O'Neill.

Mr. O'Neill would neither confirm nor deny the inmate who became sick
was a drug mule, hired to bring drugs into the facility.

"We do not comment on the nature of the investigation," said Mr.
O'Neill. "It is a matter in the hands of Ottawa police."

Meanwhile, inmates said they didn't feel the drug-related incident
warranted the heavy-handed measures taken. Scott Smith, who has been
at the facility for three weeks, said when inmates were locked in
their cells on Thursday night, the guards "told us there was a
shortage of staff."

On Sunday, the intervention team arrived at Mr. Smith's unit to do an
inmate by inmate search. "What they're putting you through, it's high
stress," he said, "and if you don't react fast enough, bang, you get a
smack in the side of the head."

Although searches at the facility aren't out of the ordinary, the
regular staff at the detention centre usually handles the procedure,
said Mike Mars, another inmate at the centre. The introduction of the
crisis intervention team and the force used seemed unnecessary, he
added.

He was assaulted more than once, after a guard asked him, "What are
you looking at?" and slapped him in the face several times, Mr. Mars
said.

"There was really no need for all this because of one guy," he said,
referring to the inmate found with drugs. Twelve of the 21 days he has
spent at the facility have been in lockdown.

Mr. O'Neill would not comment on the inmates' allegations, but said it
is routine for the intervention team to be brought in to do searches
at institutions, to support the regular staff.

"A lockdown doesn't necessitate the use of force at all," he said. "If
everyone behaves and does as they're asked, there should be no
incidents and no need for any kind of force."