GUARDS FUME OVER DOPE

Scanners Underused, Union Claims

CALGARY -- Canada's prison guards say the feds aren'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.

Tell Managers

"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," says 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% 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," says Kevin Grabowsky, Prairie president of the
Union of Canadian Correctional Officers.

CSC Denial

"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 says 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 says.

"They felt the (union information) was outdated, isn't factual and that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 that prisons which 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.