Ontario expanding drug-detecting dogs in jails amid violence fueled by contraband
Four more canine handlers will join the province's correctional centres as inmate-on-inmate violence nearly doubled over four years and staff assaults climbed 27 percent.
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Ontario's 25 jails and correctional centres will add four more dogs trained to detect drugs in the smallest quantities as the province works to curb contraband fueling violence inside facilities.
The province has deployed its current canines over 2,000 times in the last year alone, with handlers conducting operational searches across the province and finding contraband regularly, according to Michael Pernal, senior manager with the specialized operations unit for Correctional Services. The expansion would enable dogs to be dedicated to fewer jails, allowing them to spend more time in institutions with higher rates of drug use.
Contraband has driven inmate-on-inmate violence, which has nearly doubled over four years, and inmate assaults on staff, which have climbed by more than 27 percent since 2023, according to data obtained by CityNews through a Freedom of Information request. James Powell, a veteran correctional officer and handler of Chase, one of the drug-detecting dogs, said the animals can detect minute quantities—grams or tenths of grams—that electronic or physical searches easily miss.
"When it comes to success, success for me is to go into a search and either come up with nothing, and I know nothing is there, so that the area is safe," said Powell. "Or we come across and get all those small minute amounts that the search team wasn't able to recover, and then I can assure and tell everyone that the unit is safe and clean."
Plans for expansion have been in the works for over a decade, but inclusion in the Protecting Ontario's Streets and Communities Act, 2026, tabled in May, would solidify the plan if the legislation passes this fall.
