N.S. JAILS GOING HIGH-TECH

Province Spending $200,000 On Equipment That Detects Explosives,
Narcotics

Some spiffy new sci-fi gadgets that sniff for drugs and explosives will soon
be on their way to several jails in the province.

The Justice Department has decided to spend more than $200,000 on
desktop explosives and narcotics detectors and a desktop X-ray
inspection system, the province's tender site shows.

The devices are ion scanners that can trace minute amounts of
explosives and drugs, which have been big problems for prisons across
the country.

Department spokeswoman Sherri Aikenhead said the province has ordered
four scanners, two of which will be installed at the Central Nova
Scotia Correctional Facility in Burnside. The third goes to the Cape
Breton Correctional Facility in Sydney and the fourth to the Southwest
Nova Correctional Facility in Yarmouth.

Jim Gosse, president of the Nova Scotia Government and General
Employees Union local that represents correctional officers in Nova
Scotia, said one scanner has arrived and it's being tested.

"They're . . . working out some concerns or problems that have arisen
with one of the units they have."

It's normal to fine tune the units so they won't be overly sensitive,
he said.

Ms. Aikenhead said the devices are used in many airports and in New
Brunswick correctional facilities, but are a first for Nova Scotia.

They'll add a layer of security beyond the traditional strip search
and metal detector test used on offenders when they first arrive.

"The way it works now, every inmate is strip-searched when they go
in," said Ms. Aikenhead. "We felt that these detectors were needed.
It's new to us."

Ms. Aikenhead said the scanner under testing is a prototype and the
new ones should arrive and be operational within a couple of months.

"The scanner can tell you when someone has been in recent contact with
drugs, whether it (is) ecstasy, cocaine. . . . They can swab a piece
of cloth or a body part and it can tell you if you have drug traces."

Offenders who test positive will be isolated from the rest of the jail
population, she said. Visitors aren't subject to such testing because
there is a physical barrier between them and the inmate. The room the
visitor occupies is also searched after the visit.

The province is also spending almost $57,000 on new Panasonic dome
cameras, which will be installed both inside and outside jails. The
most recent cameras purchased are headed for the Cape Breton jail.

Mr. Gosse welcomes the high-tech equipment. "We're just . . . in the
process now of getting some equipment and technology that we maybe
should have had five years ago."

He hopes some cameras will be installed outside the Burnside facility.
Security around Burnside has been a problem, he said, noting the old
correctional centre in Halifax had an exterior guard post.

"There's virtually no staff on the outside perimeter. We've pointed
out to the employers for a long time that we've had very inadequate
and outdated equipment."

Last year, the federal government said it would spend $120 million to
combat drug problems in penitentiaries over a five-year period. No
federal money is going toward the new gadgets, said Ms. Aikenhead.

Visiontec Systems from Ontario won the ion scanners contract, while
Instructor AIDS Ltd. won the dome camera tender. According to the
province's tender website, both companies entered the lowest bids.