‘Handmade stabbing weapons’ seized during B.C. prison lockdown

The Mission Correctional Institution in Mission, B.C. is pictured Tuesday, April 14, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

A week-long lockdown at a prison in British Columbia has ended after officials seized various contraband items during a search of the facility.

The Correctional Service of Canada said Wednesday the lockdown at the medium-security unit of Mission Institution had lifted and an “exceptional search” of the facility was now complete.

The unit was placed under lockdown protocols, confining inmates to their cells for extended periods and barring visitors from the facility, on May 19.

A notice from the correctional service announcing the lockdown said it was ordered to ensure the safety of staff and inmates, and would be lifted “as soon as it is considered safe to do so.”

The agency said in a statement Wednesday that several contraband and unauthorized items were found in the search, including four cellphones, drug and tattoo paraphernalia and “numerous handmade stabbing weapons.”

Normal prison operations have now resumed and visitors are once again allowed into the facility.

The correctional service says it is strengthening its efforts to prevent contraband from entering all its institutions “to ensure a safe and secure environment for everyone.”

Corrections officials regularly work with local police to investigate and arrest those who attempt to bring contraband into prisons, the statement said.

Mission Institution, located approximately 65 kilometres east of Vancouver, opened in 1977 and was later merged with the former Ferndale Institution, which housed minimum-security inmates.

The correctional service says the prison can accommodate roughly 325 medium-security inmates, plus about 215 minimum-security inmates in a residential-design model.