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. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom