I am going to answer from my perspective as president of the union. We often get calls from members saying that they don't always trust the system. Visitors go through the IONSCAN that can detect drugs, but sometimes the consequences are not always clear to us. We assume that, if a visitor comes to the institution and the machine goes off, the visitation rights will be suspended. But the big question about visitation rights is whether they are a right or a privilege. What does visitation mean? Should there be contact allowed during visits or should they take place through a window?
I would like to draw your attention to one more thing. In my career, I have witnessed very sad situations. I have seen mothers come to visit their children—sometimes children are criminals—and they were forced to try and smuggle drugs in to help their sons. In one instance, a lady called the institution completely devastated. We tried to make her understand that we had to protect her son too. We warned her that she might well come and try to bring drugs in, but that it wouldn't work and she would be arrested. There are consequences for everything.
Sometimes people wonder what the consequences are for visitors, but we also have to determine what the consequences are for inmates who put pressure on their families and friends to bring them drugs. Those consequences are not always clear to people.
Are visits a right or a privilege? If we are dealing with a right, do we allow contact or do we require visits with indirect contact if the person has already tried three times to bring drugs in?
That's what this is all about. We have the people who want drugs and the people who want to make money from drugs. The consequences must be clear, but that is not always the case. I know that CSC has policies, but unfortunately they don't always seem to be the right way of doing things.