A sergeant at the Hamilton Wentworth Detention Centre told an inquest today that drugs are now much stronger and harder to detect. The inquest is looking into the drug overdose deaths of 8 inmates from 2012-2016.

The Barton street jail has body scanners to detect drugs but the sergeant says he believes inmates can get drugs passed the scanners by wrapping them in carbon paper and hiding them in their bodies. Saying they find a lot of carbon paper inside the jail.

42-year old Bill Acheson died of a heroine overdose in September 2012 in jail. The inquest heard the day before he died the jail’s security footage showed inmates coming and going from one of the cells, likely for drugs. In that cell was an inmate who had just been admitted to the jail. The inquest hearing there was no record of him being searched when he arrived.

That night another inmate overdosed in that frequently visited cell but survived. His cellmates were then placed in Acheson’s cell without being searched, Acheson was found lying on the floor of his cell the next morning.

He died on the last day of a labour dispute. Correctional officers were on strike and managers and volunteers from other institutions were filling in. Both men supervising Acheson’s unit had never worked as correctional officers inside the Barton street jail.

Correctional officers don’t have access to the security cameras. The footage is only used after the fact, officers instead do regular rounds. Acheson’s cellmate was also taken to hospital and treated for an opioid overdose.