Heroin link investigated in jail death

Updated There may be a connection between bad heroin and a death at Hamilton’s Barton Street Jail.

Hamilton Police are calling the death of an inmate suspicious and sudden. The homicide squad is investigating, but police say they won’t know what killed the inmate until the post mortem is done.

Police confirmed to CHCH News this afternoon that they are looking into a possible link between heroin use and the death. There have also been three separate cases of serious illness in the Barton Street Jail within the past 24 hours and that has prompted police to issue the warning about heroin.

The inmate was found around 6 am and the body was taken away by the coroner just after noon. Another inmate was taken to hospital just before 11:30 this morning. Police say they don’t know if the inmates overdosed or whether the heroin contained some foreign agent.

Correctional officer Stephen Smith says drugs are a daily problem at the jail. “We find contraband such as drugs pretty much daily. It’s always a fight between the correctional officers and search teams trying to get drugs out but these guys find ways to get things into the institution and it’s a constant struggle for the correction officers to get the drugs out.”

This all comes on the same day that jail guards went back to work after a labour dispute with their management over not being able to wear bullet and stab proof vests when searching the jail. The facility has been run by managers for the past 27 days.

It started when an electrical outlet cover went missing inside the jail four weeks ago. A search was expected to start late this afternoon. The jail will remain on full lockdown for the next 2 to 3 days while the officers continue to search the whole facility.

Guards are now allowed to wear protective vests when they feel it’s necessary.

Video: Kate Carnegie reports: