PRISONS ADOPT NEW ANTI-DRUG, ANTI-GANG PLANS

OTTAWA - Frequent searches, more sniffer dogs and intensive treatment
units are among newly approved Corrections Canada measures to try to
stamp out the serious drug problem in federal prisons.

The initiatives are among two dozen task force recommendations the
prison service recently adopted - on everything from aboriginal gangs
to guard uniforms - with the aim of improving security at
institutions.

The service has rejected several controversial proposals from the task
force, including removal of razor wire and most firearms from prisons,
that sparked a public outcry.

Members of the service's executive committee felt some of the ideas
"would be difficult to explain in the current public environment," Ole
Ingstrup, the Corrections Commissioner, said in a memo to staff this
week.

However, the executive committee continues to study several
contentious proposals in the report, including giving more inmates
access to their cell keys and generally making prisons less bleak and
more like the outside world. "In the future, the majority of prisons
could be constructed within a secure perimeter and take the form of
small communities that promote co-operation and responsible choices
among inmates who live there."

Canadian Alliance MP Myron Thompson, who obtained a leaked copy of the
report last December, blasted the proposed move towards more friendly
prisons as the product of "bleeding-heart bookworms from their ivory
towers."