It was late September 2023 when correctional officers discovered four tennis balls wrapped together with electric tape, which appeared to have been thrown over the fence of the Fort Frances Jail in northern Ontario.

Inside the bundle, guards found Android and Apple chargers, cigarettes and a leafy green substance they believed was marijuana.

They searched the jail the next day, looking for the cellphone they assumed the cables had been thrown over the wall to charge. They found a portable charger, more cigarettes and a lighter; they couldn’t find a phone.

The search was one of many across the province’s overcrowded jail system in 2023, as correctional officers attempted to keep up with a wave of contraband, overdoses and understaffing.

Hundreds of pages of contraband reports obtained b

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