Pubdate: Fri, 25 Jan 2008
Source: Abbotsford News (CN BC)
Copyright: 2008 Abbotsford News
Contact:  http://www.abbynews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1155
Author: Rochelle Baker

BABIES USED AS DRUG MULES

Babies and young children are being used to smuggle drugs into 
federal prisons, and an Abbotsford corrections officer who reported 
this situation to the provincial child welfare ministry is being 
investigated, says the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO).

Gord Robertson, B.C. president for UCCO, said the Matsqui prison 
guard has not been formally disciplined but his actions came under 
scrutiny of Correctional Service Canada (CSC) for breaching inmate privacy.

"The CSC reaction focused on the inmate privacy, which apparently 
trumps the safety of the child. CSC still feels it's a privacy 
breach, and what Terry did for the child was wrong," said Robertson.

While reviewing prison records in the fall, corrections officer Terry 
Leger noted a female visitor had tested positive in drug scans 
repeatedly during eight visits to Matsqui from March through July.

Despite the positive results she was allowed entry into Matsqui on 
three occasions.

Even more alarming, said Robertson, was that on the last two visits 
it was her baby's clothing and sleeper that had tested positive.

In November, Leger discovered another woman at Matsqui was allowed a 
visit even after her child's stroller tested positive for cocaine.

Concerned for the child's safety he contacted the Minsitry of 
Children and Family Development and was informed he had a duty to 
report the incident.

"My concern right from the get-go was the child's safety," Leger said 
at a press conference in Abbotsford Thursday.

"We have a responsibility to protect children," he said.

Robertson said after being contacted by ministry officials, Leger's 
superiors originally threatened the officer with disciplinary action 
for breach of inmate privacy.

Leger said his experience may keep other corrections officers from 
reporting to the ministry.

Robertson said the situation is not isolated to B.C., noting a female 
visitor at a Quebec prison was caught with 32 grams of heroin after 
stashing it in her six-week-old child's clothing.

"We have the opportunity to protect the most vulnerable of society's 
members, its children, while stopping sources of drugs in our prison. 
Why is there such a resistance within our correctional service?" 
asked Robertson.

The problem of using children as drug mules stems from an 
inconsistent CSC policy regarding drug scanning and searches, he said.

Policies vary between institutions, as does training of staff on 
equipment and searches.

"A visitor can test positive one day and be denied entry, and then 
test positive the next and be allowed in. That's the inconsistency we 
see," said Robertson.

"We believe anyone with direct contact with an inmate should be 
tested," said Robertson, adding that Kent Institution, a maximum 
security facility in Agassiz, has a policy of never testing any children.

The union sees these incidents as symptomatic of a larger problem - 
CSC's ineffective attempts to stem the rampant drug trade and gang 
violence within B.C.'s federal jails.

The reason that prisons are awash in drugs is the visitors doing the 
smuggling have little fear of arrest, because those testing positive 
during ion scans are rarely reported to police, said Robertson.

"It shouldn't be discretionary - there should be a policy in place."

"If a visitor consistently tests positive police are rarely 
contacted. If they are, police are so busy they are slow to respond 
and follow up, and if they do Crown council rarely proceeds with charges."

The union wants the cooperation of the CSC, the police and outside 
agencies to stem the drug trade, he said.

"99.9 per cent of the drugs are brought in by visitors or thrown over 
the fence," said Robertson, who dismissed the notion that any 
significant quantity of drugs is being smuggled in by guards.

"After an inmate social with a hundred people, the week following we 
see large seizures of drugs and increased fighting over drugs."

"Matsqui is where a lot of drug dealing takes place. The gangs inside 
are the same as those outside - it's a mirror image," Robertson said.

Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day's office issued a 
statement, saying Day wrote to Keith Coulter, commissioner of the 
correctional service, asking the policy on drug searches be updated.

Day reportedly asked Coulter that policy support the "overarching 
priority of deterring drug trafficking into penal institution", and 
"the use of children to traffic narcotics into an institution is not 
inadvertently encouraged by CSC policy."

In the issued statement Day said, "Our government is determined to 
ensure penitentiaries are drug free."

"Keeping drugs out of our institutions is vital for the safety of our 
correctional officers and for the rehabilitation of offenders," he said.

Day made no comments regarding his position on the call for more 
consistent policy around drug testing and searches in federal institutions. 
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