RECENT DRUG RAIDS CROWD PRISONS, ROADS

Domino Effect. Inmates Being Zig-Zagged Across the Province

Quebec highways are crowded with prison vans as the strained
provincial correctional system tries to cope with the domino effect of
a series of raids, mostly in Montreal, targeting hundreds of suspected
criminals since the spring and adding to already overcrowded prisons.

This week, police were rounding up some 200 suspected marijuana
producers, distributors and exporters, mainly around Montreal. Last
week, another police crackdown in the region led to the arrest of 46
people, allegedly linked to drug trafficking and the Hells Angels.

This spring, more than 120 people were arrested in Operation SharQC,
an investigation largely credited for crippling the bikers in Quebec.

The operations have left correctional authorities struggling to
redistribute the inmates among Quebec's 18 provincial facilities, not
only in response to the new arrests, but to manage what was earlier
billed as a solution to the overcrowding problem.

"Our system has been overcrowded for two, three years," said Stephane
Lemaire, head of the union of Quebec correctional officers.

The provincial government has provided trailer-type housing that can
hold 300 prisoners, but can only house low-risk inmates - meaning
occupants often must be transferred from other locations.

"That puts a lot of people on the road," Lemaire said, beginning with
the SharQC arrests, which he says ended up taking an entire section of
the Montreal Detention Centre, formerly known as the Bordeaux jail,
while the most recent arrests filled Riviere des Prairies Detention
Centre, where he said some 50 inmates slept on mattresses placed in
common rooms.

"It feels like we've become a placement agency," he said. "Someone
from Montreal will end up in Amos (580 kilometres away) because
there's no space."

This upsets family and attorneys who have a hard time following the
inmate's movements, he noted.

The overcrowding problem in Montreal has had a domino effect across
the province, agrees Eric Belisle, spokesman for an inmates rights
group, who says frequent transfers impede social reinsertion and can
end up keeping inmates in prison longer.

Quebec security officials say they take the problem seriously but
expect the reopening of a new wing of the Bordeaux prison this summer
to free 250 spots, while five prisons are being built and seven others
are being renovated province-wide, spending $563 million in the process.

"That will give us a breather, but won't solve the problem," Lemaire
said