DRUGS BEHIND BARS

Little-used dope scanner at Max puts guards at risk

A correctional worker says prison brass at the Edmonton Institution are
putting guards and inmates at risk by avoiding the use of a high-tech drug
detector.

Ion scanners, purchased in 2000 to stem the flow of drugs into prisons,
aren't being used on every visitor to the Max, said Kevin Grabowsky,
president of the Prairie region of the Union of Canadian Correctional
Officers. He said that means drugs are getting behind bars - and getting
people killed.

An estimated 80% of inmates have some sort of substance abuse problem when
they enter the system.

"Inmates will fight to run the drug trade," Grabowsky said.

"So there's beatings, there's stabbings, there's murders. It's no different
than on the street when they try to control the drug trade. It brings a lot
of violence into the prison."

He estimated 50% of Canadian prisons are using ion scanners full time, while
others don't use them at all.

Edmonton Institution uses its scanner on roughly 30% to 35% of all visitors,
Grabowsky said, adding that he's been told by prison officials the machine
is too costly to use all the time.

He acknowledged there is a drug trade at Edmonton Institution.

"They'll bring in anything," Grabowsky said. "We've had heroin, cocaine,
crack, marijuana, hash, just about whatever you can find on the street, they
can get it inside."

Some visitors go to extreme lengths to get drugs inside prisons - smuggling
dope in babies' diapers, the heels of shoes or in hollowed-out books, said
Correctional Service of Canada spokesman Michele Pilon-Santilli.

An internal report, completed by CSC 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," said Pilon-Santilli. "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outdated, isn't factual and that there is no large-scale failure in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."

Grabowsky called that "lip service," adding scanners need to be used all the
time.

"They use it at borders, they use it in airports, police use it all the
time. It's a good tool," said Grabowsky.

"A big part of it, (Corrections) tells us, is budget. It's an expensive
machine, it's expensive to run, it's expensive to train someone to use it."

Institutions like Bowden, 195 km south of Edmonton, and Stony Mountain in
Manitoba, which use the scanners full time, boast the highest number of drug
busts of any federal prison, he said.

Corrections also uses drug dogs and urine tests to prevent drug smuggling,
said Grabowsky. But he said urine samples are collected only on a random
basis.

According to an October 2001 Correctional Service of Canada report, as many
as 70% of men and women in prison were identified as having substance-abuse
problems.

No official from the Edmonton Institution could be reached for comment.