The Regina Correctional Centre has introduced a new piece of equipment that will help create a safe environment at the facility.
Staff are aiming to minimize the amount of contraband people attempt to smuggle in to the facility with a new x-ray body scanner. The scanner was installed back in March, and after training was completed over the summer, it became operational on October 9.
The equipment allows staff to screen offenders coming in to the centre for items such as narcotics or weapons that may be hidden on them or inside their bodies.
Julien Hulet, director of the correctional centre, said drugs create a number of problems for inmates and even staff at the jail.
“There’s that exposure if someone has powders or pills in their cells, and being contaminated poses a serious risk for our staff who work in this facility,” he said to reporters.
Hulet also touched on the negative effect it has on people who are trying to complete rehabilitation programming at the facility. He mentioned that around 75 per cent of people who come to correctional centres across the province have an issue which needs to be addressed through abstinence or rehabilitation.
The scanner has already registered positive scans approximately two weeks since being in use, helping staff intercept different items which have a high price tag at the jail.
“There was tobacco and marijuana and those are priced commodities. You can typically buy a pouch of tobacco on the street for $50, but in here they run for $500” he explained.
Officers also found a type of heroin called purple rock or purple crush. So far, the scanner detected six attempts by offenders to smuggle contraband in the facility.
“The installation of this body scanner is a big step forward for the safety and security of the Regina Correctional Centre, and ultimately the Saskatchewan corrections system as a whole,” said Minister of Corrections and Policing Christine Tell in a release.
The ministry plans to bring the same body scanner at the Saskatoon and Prince Albert jails before the end of the fiscal year, however there are no plans to install the equipment at the Pine Grove facility at this time.
Each scanner costs over $100,000.