Cape Breton jail has body scanner
‘The ultimate goal is to eliminate contraband’
SYDNEY — Nova Scotia prison guards can now search where no guard has been permitted to go before.
John Scoville, chief superintendent of Nova Scotia’s adult correctional facilities, demonstrated the new body scanner at the Cape Breton Correctional Centre for the Cape Breton Post, describing it as a vital piece of equipment now in place at all four Nova Scotia adult jails.
“It’s important and I feel one of the best tools we’ve purchased during my 25-plus years in corrections,” he said.
“The ultimate goal is to eliminate contraband being brought in the system and for strip searches to become less intrusive.”
In Canada the legislation doesn’t allow body cavity searches unless voluntary and then has to be administered by a medical professional.
The most common way that an offender would smuggle drugs into a facility would be to swallow it and excrete it later on for use, or insert it up their anal cavity. Scoville said inmates are subjected to strip searches but guards can only do a visual inspection of body cavity areas.
“It’s an uncomfortable process for our staff and the inmate but it’s an important one for the safety of the building, other inmates, staff and anyone else that might be involved,” he said.
“If contraband is hidden internally we’re not going to see it.”
He said the scanner has changed all that.
“This body scanner will show us anything on the body or hidden internally. It’s a tool that has cut down on contraband coming into the facility drastically. It’s a safer environment than we had a year ago for the inmates, the staff, the volunteers and everyone who comes in here. If we can reduce drugs and contraband coming in the facility, it just makes it safer for everybody.”
Inmates can be scanned in prison attire. Every new admission is scanned — court returns and transfers.”
In August 2017 the justice department issued a news release for the tender of five Soter LS body scanners at a cost of about $1 million for their provincial prisons including the Cape Breton Correctional Centre in Sydney, the Northeast Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Pictou County, the Southwest Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Yarmouth and two at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.
The correctional facilities got the scanners last year, including the Cape Breton Correctional Centre in June, but time was needed to get them set up and train staff.
The Cape Breton Correctional Centre scanner went into use in September. On Wednesday the Nova Scotia Department of Justice will be officially announcing the use of the scanners provincewide.
Scoville said, Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta and Nova Scotia are using this model.
Only prisoners in custody would be subjected to a body scan.
The body scan is not used for visitors because friends and loved ones are only permitted non-contact visits and are separated by a glass partition.
Jason Weldon, security risk officer at the Cape Breton Correctional Centre, said when they first got the scanner inmates were wondering how it was going to work and what could be detected.
“At first we were able to find contraband quite often,” he said, adding they have located
packages of drugs inmates have swallowed or hidden in anal cavities.
“After we caught some drugs coming in and those inmates were segregated, word got around.
We hardly ever find any now. They know we have this in place now.”
When contraband does show up on a scan, he said that inmate is kept separate from the main population.
The inmate would be put in a cell that lacks any plumbing facilities such as a toilet or shower.
“Then we’d wait until the inmate passed out the drugs so they could get out of segregation or they’d have a bowel movement and we’d inspect it,” Weldon said.
Correctional centre officials won’t say what kinds of drugs have been located at the correctional centre because they are not allowed to open such packages for safety reasons.
Scoville said staff are not trained in that department but are trained on how to properly seal it and secure it for the police in evidence lockers.
As well as finding drugs, the guards have also found other contraband, including lighters.
“Anything that’s unusual on the body would be seen,” Welton added.
Weldon said the scanner has also proven valuable in other ways. As well as inmates, the body scanner is used on objects including clothing and footwear, including articles brought to prisoners for court use.
Weldon said on one occasion after receiving some information, a massive search was undertaken at the facility which included scanning all the mattresses in the building.
Metal objects were located hidden inside three mattresses.
“We don’t know how long they were there but they were there for a while,” he said.
“The X-ray machine picked them up no problem.”
In doing a demonstration for the Cape Breton Post, a paper clip was hidden in a mattress and the scan clearly identified it.
Scoville said contraband is a commodity in prison but the inmates don’t want risk losing it. It’s the high risk now of losing it that has dramatically reduced attempts to smuggle it into the prison.
Scoville said when drugs are brought in one never knows what’s really in it.
“Maybe it was mixed with something and you have a reaction. This body scanner is making the environment safer and reducing the risk to everyone involved.”