A former correctional officer who became infatuated with an inmate tried to smuggle drugs and blades into prison. Despite the seriousness of the crime, the parties want Isabelle Lord to serve her sentence at home. A lenient suggestion which raised the judge’s eyebrows.
Posted at 12:54 p.m.
“It’s very serious. I’m surprised by this common suggestion. I will not make my decision right away,” said judge Sylvain Lépine on Monday at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse.
Isabelle Lord, a 50-year-old woman from Val-David, pleaded guilty to two counts on Monday: breach of trust by a public servant and possession of cannabis with intent to distribute it.
A correctional officer at Saint-Jérôme prison for a year, Isabelle Lord was caught red-handed in October 2022. That morning, management had ordered the search of all employees. Seeing this, Isabelle Lord tried to return to her car, but a director ordered her to submit to the search.
His bag contained a dozen illegal items. She possessed 27 grams of cannabis divided into two packets rolled up in cellophane paper in the “butt plug” style, a tobacco pouch, a vaporizer and two lighters. Behind bars, the drug and tobacco trade is very lucrative.
Also, the corrupt agent had a pair of scissors and a small hook – two potential weapons – as well as cell phone cords, a charging pad, a SIM card key and some pills.
In the preceding days, she had received around twenty calls from Saint-Jérôme prison. Her phone contained some illegal photos: photos from inside the prison and even a “selfie” with the inmate she was in contact with.
It was his “first time”
Crown prosecutor Me Simon Blais and defense lawyer Me Marie-Hélène Giroux presented the judge with a joint suggestion of a sentence of two years, less a day, in home prison, followed by one year’s probation and 100 hours of community service.
Wouldn’t the principles of denunciation and deterrence require a firm prison sentence in this case?
Judge Sylvain Lépine
Last summer, in a very similar case, a corrupt correctional officer was sentenced to 15 months in prison. “The corruption of a correctional service agent is unacceptable,” said Judge Salvatore Mascia.
Firm imprisonment is certainly the “norm”, but cases of suspended prison sentences exist in case law, underlined the Crown prosecutor. According to the pre-sentence report, this was supposedly the “first time” the accused attempted to enter cannabis. His attempt was part of his “relationship” with the detainee and had no financial objective, the prosecutor argued.
According to her lawyer, Isabelle Lord simply had a “major lack of judgment”. His risk of recurrence is also “very low”. “She got upset. It had significant consequences, she lost her job,” continued Me Giroux, who considers this sentence “extremely restrictive”.
Even if the judge has the last word, in practice he is almost obliged to follow a joint recommendation. Since a Supreme Court ruling in 2016, the jointly suggested sentence must bring the administration of justice into disrepute or be contrary to the public interest for a judge to depart from it. This is extremely rare.
The judge will make his decision on Friday.
