Prison guards have seized almost as many Bibles from B.C. inmates as porn magazines, according to government data obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

Federal prisoners are allowed to keep a religious text of their choice in their cell and can usually obtain a free Bible upon request from the prison chaplain.

However, Terry Hackett, director of operations for Corrections in B.C., said in an interview that some inmates have been caught using their Bibles for non-religious purposes.

“They use the paper to roll tobacco or marijuana ... or hollow them out and store contraband in there,” said Hackett. “Normally you’re allowed to have a Bible. But once you start using it for some other purpose, then that’s when [we] seize it.”

Hackett said prisoners have been using Bibles as rolling papers for years, but the problem got noticeably worse in 2008, when Corrections instituted a smoking ban at all its prisons.

Through the Access to Information Act, The Sun obtained a database of all seizures in B.C. federal prisons between January 2008 and October 2010.

That data shows that over that period, officials seized seven Bibles from B.C. prisoners, as well as making 11 seizures of loose Bible pages.

Over that same period, officials seized 10 pornographic magazines.

The data obtained by The Sun contains details of 2,444 separate seizures at the province’s nine federal prisons.

That’s more seizures than there are prisoners (roughly 1,900) and works out to more than two seizures a day.

The seizures include “contraband” items, such as drugs and weapons, as well as “unauthorized” items, which include everything from Fig Newtons to raw chicken.

Hackett said Corrections has taken several steps —such as using drug-sniffing dogs and ion scanners that detect narcotic residue on visitors’ clothing — to reduce the amount of contraband getting into B.C.’s prisons.

And to address one of the most prevalent smuggling problems — “throw overs” at perimeter fences — several B.C. prisons have built new guard towers, said Hackett.

Not surprisingly, weapons, drugs and alcohol are the most common items seized.

There were 259 weapons seized from federal prisoners since 2008, the data shows, including 186 knives as well as a reciprocating saw blade, two padlocks stuffed in a pillow case, two pencils taped together and a rock tied in a sock.

Comparing the number of seizures at each facility to prisoner counts, Kent, the province’s lone maximum-security facility, had by far the highest rate of weapon seizures, with 131 for its 258 prisoners, three times the rate of any other prison in the province.

Hackett said that’s not surprising, since Kent “houses our most violent guys.”

Drugs and alcohol — classified as “intoxicants” in the database — were also a common item, with 384 seizures of drugs, 285 of drug paraphernalia and 55 of alcohol.

Marijuana was the most common intoxicant seized, at 93, followed by heroin (68), “pills” (67) and “brew” (52).

Brew refers to alcohol made by prisoners, fermented from anything from apples to ketchup packets.

Matsqui and Mission, both medium-security prisons in the Fraser Valley, had the most intoxicant seizures per capita, something Hackett said he couldn’t explain.