TORONTO – Drugs are being smuggled into an eastern Ontario facility inside inmates’ body cavities and in the mail they receive, a deputy jail superintendent at the facility said at a forensic investigation Tuesday.
Dan Tremblay testified at an inquest looking into the circumstances of five drug-related deaths at the Central East Correctional Center in Lindsay, Ont., that occurred in separate incidents between October 2018 and April 2019.
Tremblay said inmates ingest small amounts of packaged drugs or insert them through their rectums or pelvic area to bring into the facility before excreting and distributing the drugs inside the prison.
Tremblay said powerful synthetic drugs are imported in small quantities, which makes them very difficult to detect.
“The body scanner is great when dealing with non-organic condensed materials or materials like a weapon that is made of ceramic or metal. It will shine on that on this device,” he said.
“Items that no longer need to be as densely packed, like fentanyl, because the amount required is not as high, it becomes much more difficult to detect those in the body cavity.”
Tremblay said any inmate admitted to the facility must use the body scanner, as well as any inmate suspected of hiding something.
“They go to different techniques, including using Ziploc bags that are wrapped in electrical tape and things like that just to make it less condensed and less easily visible in the scanner,” he said.
The inquest — which began hearing witnesses Monday — is looking into the deaths of Steven Frenette, 35, who died on September 20, 2018. Daniel Foreman, 39, who died on October 3, 2018. David Bullen, 50, who died December 29, 2018. Jonathan McConnell, 36, who died April 28, 2019. and Susan Borja, 50, who died August 10, 2019.
It is expected to look into drug overdose issues in the penitentiary and consider strategies to prevent further deaths.
Tremblay said some inmates receive mail laced with drugs such as methamphetamine, fentanyl and oxycodone.
Jail staff have also seen an increase in the use of drones that attempt to drop drugs and weapons into outdoor yards at the facility, he said.
“Fortunately, our staff were diligent and our security manager noticed something going on, so we prevented it from entering the facility from the yard.”
He said prison staff have installed wire mesh over the yards with finer openings to make it more difficult to drop drones.
“As technology increases and makes our lives easier, in the correctional environment it makes our job much more difficult,” he said.
“The prison population is very innovative, so whatever we do to combat it, they then try to find a way around that system.”
The jury heard Monday from Frenette’s mother, who wrote in a statement that her son struggled with addiction for years and used drugs to “self-medicate” with mental illness and tragedies in his life.
The court of inquiry will hear evidence that will help them reach findings about the details of the prisoners’ deaths and may also make recommendations on how to prevent similar deaths in the future.
It is expected to last 15 days and hear from around 25 witnesses.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on November 15, 2022.
