INMATE DIES OF OVERDOSE

A grieving father whose 33-year-old son died as result of an apparent
drug overdose at an Island correctional facility wants to know how
drugs got into the jail.

When Ryan Smith was convicted of a break-and-enter and sent to
Vancouver Island Regional Correctional Facility, commonly known as the
Wilkinson Road jail, in June 2008, his father was relieved.

Larry Smith believed his son, a heroin addict who had struggled with
drugs since adolescence, would have another chance to get clean.

"How could anyone get drugs in there?" Smith asked from inside his
small Vic West apartment, where family photos line the walls and top
the shelves. "Every time I went to see him, there was Plexiglas
between us. We talked on phones."

When Smith visited his son on Tuesday, he found Ryan was gaining
weight, exercising and looked healthy. That night, another inmate
alerted staff at the facility that Ryan was in distress. Bruce
Bannerman, spokesman for the B.C. Corrections Branch, said health care
and correctional staff called an ambulance and Ryan was taken to
hospital, where he died.

Det. Paul Smith of the Saanich police said that Ryan, who was
conscious while being transported, admitted to staff that he had taken
crystal meth. Smith said police are awaiting the autopsy's toxicology
results, but foul play is not suspected.

Bannerman said effective drug searches within the jails can't prevent
drugs from being secreted in body cavities, since corrections staff
have no authority to do body-cavity searches. He could not say whether
Ryan, who was on a doctor-authorized methadone program in jail, would
have had his blood or urine screened by health staff.

Bannerman also could not say how frequently the facility, which houses
about 350 inmates, is searched for drugs, or how often drugs are found.