Contraband at Cowansville Penitentiary | “Inmates are always one step ahead”

Prisoners who consume and get into debt. Score-settling in prison. Homemade weapons that go incognito. Contraband is increasingly worrying the staff at the Cowansville penitentiary. The union is also calling for concrete and effective measures to counter this scourge in prisons.

In just four months, drugs and cell phones worth nearly $700,000 were seized by correctional officers at the Cowansville penitentiary, according to the establishment’s union. These figures reveal a dangerous but lucrative trade controlled by a few leaders. It all destabilizes the daily lives of inmates and staff, underlines Christian Côté, correctional officer and local UCCO-SACC-CSN president at the Cowansville establishment.

These statistics only represent a third of the year. “It is plausible to believe that over a period of one year, more than $2 million worth of contraband in institutional value was seized at the Cowansville penitentiary. The information we have from detainees is that we intercept approximately 1 drone in 20,” Mr. Côté is alarmed.

It’s no secret that illicit substances and objects are delivered to inmates by drone right in their cells.

Consumption, tensions and insecurity

Why worry about such a situation? Because the social scourges generated by drug consumption are increased tenfold within the walls of a prison cell. “How can we reintegrate inmates who use drugs in prison into society? », asks Guillaume Favreau, union vice-president at the Cowansville establishment.

Accessibility to drugs in prison is likely to create violence outside the establishment, adds Mr. Favreau. “We end up with inmates who should be weaned off in prison, but come out even more hungry for drugs, which contributes to their cycle of crime outside. »

Undetectable weapons

During the period from May to September, more than twenty homemade weapons were seized at the Cowansville penitentiary. Many of these tools are made of ceramic blades, undetectable by a metal detector.

Mike Bolduc, Quebec regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO-SACC-CSN), believes that not all measures are being taken to combat this contraband. For years, an effective drone detection system has been called for.

“The system is archaic. He is not able to tell the difference between a drone and a bird. There is better technology,” protests Mr. Bolduc.

What’s more, some inmates are cunning. When reinforced windows were installed at the Donnacona penitentiary, some found a “way to average.” “Inmates have Plexiglas windows brought in to replace them. They are always a step ahead of the rest of us. »

A paradoxical letting go. “We are the poor child of the system,” laments Mr. Bolduc. He considers it counterproductive to inject millions into projects to combat armed violence, but to give nothing to establishments dedicated to the reintegration of criminals. “We have been waiting for body scanners for decades. Airports have them. We don’t even have that option,” says Mike Bolduc.

There is also a lack of accountability among prisoners. “There are no or few consequences, few transfers after seizures,” he believes.