ESCAPEE FLEEING PRISON DRUGS, SAYS WIFE

A slithery prisoner with a drug problem who escaped custody twice in two
weeks is running from a ready supply of cocaine in prison, says his
common-law wife.

Tina Gates said she doesn't know where Dennis Cecil Johnson is hiding, but
she believes the 35-year-old is trying to find a place where he can kick
his coke habit.

"He doesn't want to go back to jail; there's too many drugs in there," she
said. "If he went back there, he'd never stay clean."

Random drug precautions

Springhill penitentiary brings in sniffer dogs and makes random urine tests
to detect drug smugglers, said chief administrator Debbie Eason.

"Inmates are searched all the time," said Eason. "But they have 24 hours to
think of different ways to bring drugs in, and you can't completely
eliminate drugs."

The skinny, five-foot-10 man escaped from his prison guard in Dartmouth
April 27 during a temporary, escorted absence from Springhill.

Second escape

A Sackville RCMP officer arrested him Wednesday. But Johnson managed to
slip his handcuffed wrists underneath his legs, wriggle from the back seat
through the small hole in the police car's protective shield, and drive off
- - with sirens flashing - after the officer stopped to break up a roadside
argument.

Johnson - who has dark, short hair, a goatee, and rotten teeth - has been a
Springhill inmate for most of the 11 years he's been romantically involved
with Gates. The couple have two sons, nine and seven, and a daughter, five.

"He's my heart and I love him to death," said the 30-year-old.

"What I want to see happen is for him to go somewhere and get serious help.
Jail is not the solution."

Johnson, who was serving an eight-year sentence he started in 1995, has
more than 30 convictions for break-ins he committed to feed his drug habit.

"I'm not saying what he's done is right, because it's not. But when he had
money, he made sure that me and the children were well taken care of," said
Gates.

"He might have done some bad things in his day, but my kids think the world
of him."

Johnson earned his high-school diploma, and took mechanical, typing, and
plumbing courses in jail, said Gates.

"He's as smart as a whip," she said. "If he could just strip himself of
what he knows and rebuild himself, he's got plenty of opportunity to make
something of his life."

`Like suicide'

If he's caught again, Gates said Johnson would not pose a danger to
himself. "But he's going to be going right back into the same situation
he's trying to get away from," she said. "So I guess, in the long run, that
is like committing suicide."