Pubdate: Sat, 28 Jul 2012
Source: Regina Leader-Post (CN SN)
Copyright: 2012 The Leader-Post Ltd.
Contact: http://www.leaderpost.com/opinion/letters/letters-to-the-editor.html
Website: http://www.leaderpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/361
WEAK RESPONSE TO JAIL DRUG SCANDAL

Almost four years ago, we urged a previous Saskatchewan corrections 
minister to "get a grip on security at the (Regina) jail" following 
the escape of six prisoners.

Little did we know then that it wasn't just the inmates that needed 
careful supervision, but some jail guards as well.

Within months of that 2008 breakout, the Regina Integrated Drug Unit 
launched an investigation into reports that staff at the Regina 
Provincial Correctional Centre were being paid by inmates to smuggle 
drugs and other "contraband" into the jail.

As a result of that investigation, two guards received prison 
sentences. The first, Larry William Barager, a veteran correctional 
officer and supervisor, was sentenced to three years in 2010 after 
admitting drug trafficking and other charges.

The second guard, Brent Miles Taylor, was handed a five-year sentence 
earlier this week after an earlier jury trial that saw him convicted 
of numerous charges, including drug trafficking and possession of 
proceeds of crime.

In both cases, inmate contacts outside the jail packed drugs like 
cocaine, morphine, marijuana and cannabis resin in tobacco pouches. 
The jail guards were paid to collect those packages and deliver them 
to inmates.

During Taylor's sentencing on Monday, Regina Court of Queen's Bench 
Justice Eugene Scheibel referred to how "easy" it was for Taylor to 
take drugs into the Regina jail and deliver them to inmates. "Guards 
were not searched when they commenced their work; they had their own 
secure locker and they were trusted to act in a manner fitting their 
occupation."

"Scandalous" isn't too big a word to describe this sorry episode and 
it's a word that can also be used to describe the provincial 
government's response to it.

The public has heard not a peep from the current minister responsible 
for Corrections, Christine Tell, and a Ministry of Corrections and 
Policing spokesman contacted by a Leader-Post reporter Tuesday 
wouldn't say what measures are being taken or if correctional centre 
staff are now being searched when arriving at the facility. All he'd 
say is that security procedures are reviewed following such 
incidents, and then "we make a decision as to what direction we're 
going to be going in."

We feel for the vast majority of honest, lawabiding jail guards who 
have been badly let down by their disgraced former colleagues. Loyal 
staff haven't been helped by the silence of the union that represents 
them, the Saskatchewan Government and General Employees' Union 
(SGEU). It could have offered them a public show of support, but has 
not responded to a Leader-Post invitation to comment five days ago.

The public's confidence in the integrity and security of the Regina 
jail has surely been shaken by these cases. Though procedures must be 
kept as confidential as possible, citizens are owed at least a 
promise that security will be tightened.

The response so far is not reassuring.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom