Inmates trying to smuggle contraband into the South West Detention Centre will have a much tougher time once a full-body scanner arrives.
Windsor's jail is among the first in the province to receive one of the scanners. Ontario is installing the technology in all 26 adult correctional facilities over the next two years.
OPSEU Local 135 President Randy Simpraga says right now they only have metal detecting devices.
"We've seen an increase across the province in weapons made out of non-metallic items such as ceramic knives," he says. "But what this tool will do, when we put the offender through, it will identify voids in the body, which will indicate if there's something there that shouldn't be."
One of the biggest challenges are ceramic knives and sometimes drugs stuffed in plastic Kinder eggs, he says, which are then hidden inside someone's body.
It's unknown exactly when the scanner will arrive, but the province says the first 11 scanners are scheduled to be installed by the end of March 2017. The scanners are expected to cost $9.5-million, which includes maintenance for the next ten years.
Positive results are already being seen at one Toronto jail using a scanner.
"Offenders would come in with their contraband and they'd actually throw it in this box [and say], 'Here, sorry you're going to catch me with this,'" he says. "They'd hand it out before they attempted to bring it in."
The South West Detention Centre is getting one full-body scanner on the male side of the jail.
Simpraga says it's just a matter of an "operational" adjustment to get the female inmates on the other side to run them through the scanner "if need be." He hopes to one day get two scanners so each side can have one.
