PRISONS' DRUG-FINDING SCANNERS RARELY USED, GUARDS' UNION SAYS

Report Alleges Budget Concerns Keeping High-tech Devices Idle

OTTAWA (CP) -- CANADA'S prison guards say Ottawa isn't serious about
stemming the flow of drugs into penitentiaries, noting that high-tech
scanners at some of the toughest prisons are rarely used because of budget
concerns.

But a Corrections Department official says guards are responsible for the
safety and security of the 51 federal prisons, adding that sounding the
alarm about equipment breakdowns is part of their job.

"If they're saying ion scanners are not working for weeks or people are not
trained on them, they have an obligation or a duty to bring that forward to
management," said Michele Pilon-Santilli, spokeswoman for Correctional
Services of Canada.

"Not through the media, but through various internal means."

Drugs have long been considered a major problem in Canada's prisons, with
80 per cent of inmates having some sort of substance abuse problem when
they enter the system. Part of the plan to stem the flow of smuggled drugs
was the purchase of ion scanners beginning in 2000.

A guards' union survey within the last month found some prisons use the
drug detection devices sparingly and that the scanners, which are also used
at airports and border checkpoints, can sit idle for weeks or even months.
One machine at the special handling unit in Quebec, the country's
super-maximum security facility, has never been used, while another at the
maximum-security Edmonton Institution is rarely used unless a person is
targeted via intelligence, says a union executive.

"This goes to credibility," said Kevin Grabowsky, prairie president of the
Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

"How serious are you about not wanting drugs introduced into your prisons
when you have this technology and you don't use it?"

Pilon-Santilli said an internal report completed in mid-June found all
prisons except healing lodges had operational scanners.

"The conclusion was that the majority of sites used this technology on a
regular basis," she said.

"They felt the (union information) was outdated, isn't factual and that
there is no large-scale failure in technology across CSC. Nor are the
systems down for the lengthy periods of time they are alluding to." She
rejects union allegations that budget concerns affect how often drug
scanners are used.

The union review noted prisons that use the machines all the time have
higher rates of drug busts, pointing to medium-security Bowden Institution
in Alberta and Stony Mountain in Manitoba.

"When these machines are used properly and continually, the results speak
for themselves," the report says.

The review was done after Corrections Commissioner Lucie McClung told a
parliamentary committee in early June that every visitor to a federal
institution is subjected to some non-intrusive search for drugs.

The union representing 6,000 guards has been locked in contract
negotiations for more than a year, but national president Sylvain Martel
says the complaint about drugs is no pressure tactic.

"It has nothing to do with contract negotiations," said Martel. "It was
done in order to set the record straight."

Martel said inmates caught with drugs within prison walls face minimal
disciplinary measures.

Pilon-Santilli said Corrections has other methods to halt drugs from
getting into prisons, including random urine tests and the use of drug dogs
to sniff out narcotics. "But you have to understand that people will go to
great lengths to bring drugs into institutions," she said, noting drugs
have been found in babies' diapers, the heel of a shoe and hollowed-out books.

Random urinalysis suggests 12 per cent of inmates test positive for drugs
or alcohol at any time, she said.