Pubdate: Sun, 31 Aug 2008 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2008 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Ethan Baron Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration) FEDS CRACK DOWN ON DRUG USE IN JAILS More drug-sniffing dogs and high-tech body scanners will be deployed in prisons in a new $120-million federal program to fight inmate drug use, federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day announced Friday in B.C. "Illicit drugs in federal prisons compromise the safety and security of correctional staff as well as our communities," Day said during a visit to maximum-security Kent Institution in Agassiz. Prison drug use undermines rehabilitation programs and increases the rate at which freed cons reoffend, Day said. The five-year program will boost numbers of drug dogs "significantly," add more ion and X-ray scanners, increase intelligence-gathering within prisons and surrounding communities, enhance prisons' perimeter security and impose a scheduled-visits policy. Day said 800 drug seizures were made in Canadian prisons last year. Visitors bring drugs in, and drugs have been packed in tennis balls and launched over prison fences, Day said. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom