Excerpt from the OH&S Canada magazine (June 2016)
Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services (MCSCS) announced on May 3, 2016, that advanced -technology full-body scanners will be installed in all of its prisons to reduce contraband and enhance the safety of both inmates and employees.
The scanning systems, which will be set up in all 26 of the provincial’s adult correctional facilities, will scan human bodies for internal and external contraband and that current security measures cannot detect. The move results from a six-month pilot project at the Toronto South Detention Centre, where dozens of contraband items were confiscated with the help of full-body scanners.
“Moving forward with the installation of full-body scanners in all of Ontario’s adult correctional facilities will further improve staff and inmate safety, reduce contraband and build safer communities for everyone,” Community Safety and Correctional Services Minister Yasir Naqvi says in a statement.
The MCSCS expects the first 11 scanners to be installed by March 2017.
My opinion
I have my reservations about the need of the scanners, but, under the right conditions, it could work.
It would certainly eliminate the unnecessary searches that go on at present that are used as a means of discipline instead of truly looking for contraband.
I would like to research a little more and see if the scanners are still in use and the results coming from their install.
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