Contraband seized during weeklong lockdown at B.C. prison

Mountain Institution in Agassiz, B.C. Sunday, March 30, 2008. (Jonathan Hayward / THE CANADIAN PRESS)

A weeklong lockdown at a medium-security prison in British Columbia has ended after guards completed what the Correctional Service of Canada described as an “exceptional search” of the facility.

Mountain Institution in Agassiz was put under lockdown protocols on March 21, with prison officials conducting a search of the facility and suspending all outside visits to the site.

“The search was ordered to ensure the safety and security of the institution, its staff, and inmates,” the correctional service said in a statement early last week. “Normal operations will resume as soon as it is considered safe to do so.”

The lockdown ended on March 27, with authorities announcing the seizure of contraband and unauthorized items inside the prison, including cellphones, phone chargers and methamphetamine.

“The Correctional Service of Canada is strengthening measures to prevent the entry of contraband into its institutions in order to ensure a safe and secure environment for everyone,” the agency said in a statement Friday, announcing that visits and normal operations had resumed at Mountain Institution.

The statement noted that the correctional service works with outside police agencies to “take action against those who attempt to have contraband brought into correctional institutions.”

Last month, officials at the medium-security prison seized a package containing methamphetamine, cellphones, cannabis concentrate and nicotine patches, and said an investigation into the origins of the contraband was underway.

Assistant warden Marie Messer estimated the total institutional value of the seized items at $149,370.

Mountain Institution has a maximum capacity of 440 inmates, according to the correctional service.