New security team aims to stem drugs, weapons at Thorold jail
A team of specially trained corrections officers will soon be working at Niagara Detention Centre, helping to stem the flow of drugs and weapons into the correctional institution.
Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones was in Thorold Monday to announce new institutional security teams (ISTs) to be deployed at both the Niagara facility and at Toronto East Detention Centre, in the hope of also protecting corrections officers and staff, as well as inmates.
“Our government is committed to addressing long-standing safety issues, such as drugs and weapons being smuggled into our jails,” Jones said. “We want to keep dangerous gang members behind bars where they belong and ensure they cannot continue their criminal activities during their sentence.”
She said the teams of four specially trained officers, likely to be drawn from existing personnel, will be trained to gather intelligence from the inmate population and other sources and share it with partners such as police to aid in investigations.
“Keeping drugs and weapons out of our jails is critical to ensuring the safety of the men and women who work on the front lines everyday … doing a difficult but vital job under some very challenging conditions,” Jones
said.
The flow of illegal drugs into Niagara Detention Centre has contributed to numerous overdoses in the past few years, and in 2018 two drug-related deaths at the jail.
Although the province invested nearly $10 million in 2016 to install jail body scanners, including in Thorold, Ontario Provincial Police Det. Sgt. Grant McNair said in an interview the scanners “have their shortfalls.”
“With synthetic drugs that come in there’s a lot less that need to be brought in to get the desired effect,” he said. “And a lot less means they’re harder to detect.”
Jones said ISTs were implemented earlier this year at five facilities including Elgin-Middlesex Detention Centre, Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre, Maplehurst Correctional Complex, Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre and Toronto South Detention Centre.
“We are rolling them out where we see the need for them,” she said.
McNair said they are making a difference in those institutions.
He said IST officers recently found a large quantity of drugs being smuggled into one institution, acting on information by local police.
“The amount of drugs that were found on them on the inside (of the jail) would have been enough to kill somebody,” he said. “That kind of stuff happens on a daily basis.”
McNair said the teams include field intelligence officers who will work with police to identify trends and criminal activity that could have an impact on the institution.
“They’ll know from police if what’s happening on the street is spilling over into what’s happening in the jail.
McNair said the initiative has also helped address violence within the institutions.
For instance, if a fight occurs between two inmates, he said the IST officers may interview those who were involved to determine if it was just a disagreement, or something more serious.
“Is it something brewing that we should know about for our own safety and security? That’s the premise behind them doing debriefs with inmates . ... They’ll be gathering information.”
While McNair said it’s difficult to find inmates who are willing to share information with officers, he said IST officers are “specially trained and their role is to build rapport with inmates and with the staff that work the units.”
Niagara Detention Centre today houses more than 260 inmates — despite being built in 1973 to accommodate 125.
Jones said the government is working to address overcrowding at jails across Ontario, through plans announced in April to build a detention centre in Thunder Bay.
“We’re working towards another announcement,” she added. “But we don’t have a choice whether we accept (additional inmates.) There is no waiting list in a corrections facility in the province of Ontario and we must do the best we can with the resources we have.”
The safety of staff within the Thorold institution has led to concerns from OPSEU Local 252 which represents officers working there.
Following the announcement, corrections officers at the facility were hopeful the initiative will alleviate those concerns.
“It remains to be seen, but we hope so,” said corrections officer Adam Taylor.