EMDC gets its long-awaited body scanner

After years of waiting, theElgin-Middlesex Detention Centre (EMDC) quietly received a full-body scanner about a month ago,according to the Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

It became operational March 31, the ministry said in an email statement.

That's about three months after the ministry said the scanner would be installed.In December, ministry officials told CBCthe long-awaited body scanner had been 'on track for installation by the end of the year.'

The scanner wasfirst promised in 2016.

The part of the prison where inmates serveweekend sentences already has its own similar body scanner; the ministry says inmates at the main jail were scanned using that device prior to March 31.

Scanners across the province

The ministry said in an email statement that body scanners have been installed at every correctional facility except for Ontario's Fort Frances Jail, where updates to infrastructure are needed before they can install the scanner.

The full-body scanners are intended to make sure that inmates don't bring drugs or weapons inside the prison, although Monte Vieselmeyer, corrections chair for OPSEU, says he worries that the technology may not be very useful in screening for opioids.

"Whether it be fentanyl or carfentanil, those are much harder to detect than say if they were bringing in more substantial drugs like weed or marijuana,"saidVieselmeyer.

"When you bring in smaller amounts, it's much harder to detect with a body scanner."

Lawyer Kevin Egan, who represents EMDCinmates involved in a lawsuit about conditions at the jail, has expressed the same concern.

The ministry said they can't comment on whether the body scanner has led to any weapon or drug seizures since March 31, citing security concerns.

There havebeen at least 10 inmate deaths at EMDCsince 2009.