To begin with, on the comment that 70% of drugs entering our institution do so through staff members, I don't believe that to be so. No organization wants to admit there's corruption within its staff, but in reality it does exist.
There are many methods that inmates can think of to get drugs inside our institution. The majority of the drugs enter as small portions via visitors who are attending open visits with the inmates. But there are a number of different ways, including private family visits, or when inmates go out into the community on escorted temporary absences. Normally they're in sight and sound of the escorting officer, but at times there is an opportunity to slip something into their pocket, such as when they go to the washroom.
We have contractors who are coming in all the time. We're not saying that all of the contractors are bringing contraband into the institution. But is it a reality? Yes, it is.
In my opinion, drugs are the evil of all evils, especially in an institutional environment. Muscling, extortion, debt, and violence are usually all tied back to drugs. We look at this as having two different elements. We look at the drug users and the drug dealers. The drug dealers are the main concern, in my capacity.
In the last few years there has been an increase in the capacity of our department, in terms of the number of security intelligence officers and administrative resources. I can honestly say that our drug seizures have significantly gone up since then.