LOTS OF WAYS FOR DRUGS TO GET INTO JAILS

Provincial inmates must be having a good laugh at the Alberta government's
latest move to crack down on drug use behind bars.

Amendments to the Corrections Act were introduced in the legislature last week.

The changes include random drug testing of inmates and a greater
possibility that drug-using prisoners will lose the time they've earned off
their sentences for good behaviour (which is known as remission).

Currently, offenders are only tested for drugs if they're suspected of
being users. The province hopes random drug testing will be an additional
deterrent as well as providing more accurate information on drug use in jail.

Inmates face a variety of penalties for breaking the rules, including
losing recreation, phone and visiting privileges, being placed in solitary
for 14 days and the loss of remission for up to 30 days.

Under the present rules, a disciplinary board doesn't have to consider loss
of remission as a possible penalty. The board would be required to consider
that punishment if the proposed legislation becomes law.

While zero tolerance for drug use by inmates may be a laudable goal, it's
pretty tough to accomplish when drugs are more or less flowing freely into
prisons.

It's unrealistic to expect we'll ever completely stop drugs from being
smuggled into jails, but there's more that could be done.

Drug-detecting machines, known as ion scanners, are now being used in all
53 federal prisons to intercept drugs. As well, the federal system uses
drug dogs. By the fall, there will be dogs in every penitentiary.

Are the machines 100% accurate? No. You may recall that singer Jann Arden
complained last month that the scanner detected cocaine and heroin on her
parents when they went to visit her brother, who is serving a life sentence
for murder at Bowden Institution.

And Corrections Canada concedes that if prisoners or inmates are hiding
drugs in body cavities, it's iffy whether the scanners or dogs will pick it up.

Nevertheless, federal officials consider the scanners and the animals as
additional tools in their drug-detection arsenal.

In Alberta provincial jails, drug dogs, borrowed from the police or customs
officers, are only used occasionally.

Basically, Alberta has been relying on searches to find drugs in provincial
institutions.

How easy is it to smuggle drugs into jail?

"Depending on the institution, easy," says Mike Rennich, chair of Local 3
of the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees, which represents prison guards.

The myriad ways drugs find their way into prison roll off his tongue. Wives
and girlfriends hide them in their bras or down their pants. (Guards aren't
allowed to even frisk visitors unless they have probable cause.)

Drugs are stuffed in babies' diapers.

Women conceal balloons filled with coke or heroin in their mouths and pass
it to their inmate-lovers while kissing.

Prisoners on work crews pick up drugs that have been stashed in a
pre-arranged spot by pals.

People serving intermittent sentences bring drugs back into jail all the
time, says Rennich.

They swallow balloons of drugs and excrete them once they're back inside.

"Sometimes we catch it but sometimes we don't," says Rennich.

"Every once in a while, we miss stuff. We're human."

He'd like to see drug dogs and scanners used, as is done in the federal system.

"Our department is still in the Stone Age about trying to stop drug flow,"
he says.

The Solicitor General's Department has concerns about the accuracy of
scanners, and drug dogs aren't considered a priority, says spokesman Jean
Olynyk.

The department is exploring alternative drug-detection technology, she says.

It's an overwhelming challenge. Nationally, about 90% of inmates serve
sentences of six months or less. Not enough time for comprehensive
addiction treatment. And the sentences are so short prisoners likely don't
care about loss of remission.