These programs are in addition to the country’s only prison “overdose prevention service,” which began operating in 2019 at the medium-security Drumheller Institution for men in Alberta. It is basically a supervised injection site, offering sterile equipment and consumption under observation.
Since the site opened, there have been 55 participants, 1,591 visits and zero overdoses at the site, officials said at the conference. The correctional service says it also offers mental health counseling, access to naloxone to counteract the effects of opioid overdose, and preventative treatments, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis — medication taken to prevent HIV.
All these efforts have led to a decrease in infections, said Marie-Pierre Gendron, an epidemiologist with the Correctional Service of Canada. He said HIV infection among inmates nationally has dropped from 2.02% of the prison population in 2007 to 0.93% in 2020; and hepatitis C has dropped from 21% in 2010 to 3.2% in 2021.
“I’m encouraged by the way they describe the program as something they’re proud of,” says Sandra Ka Hon Chu, co-executive director of the HIV Legal Network.
But a major “red flag” that could lead to lower participation is the fact that security personnel are involved in the process, he said. This is not the case with prison needle exchange programs in other countries, some of which are completely anonymous or even offer syringes in automated dispensing machines.
“It’s really a critical flaw in the program,” he said.
Inmates are subject to a security threat assessment and a warden’s approval before they can access the programs, as officials describe the process. Almost a quarter of the requests to participate in the program have been rejected, according to the statistics presented at the conference.
Shawn Huish, the director of the Mission Institution in British Columbia, said it was a challenge to change the mindset of corrections workers used to looking for drugs, confiscating them and trying to prevent inmates from taking them, while reassuring to the inmates who participate. to the program would not affect its release.
There was a lot of “fake news” to contend with, Huish said, including a billboard erected outside the prison that painted the program in a negative light.
“Our main goal was to talk, to educate, to break the fear. Having a recognized needle in prison can be scary for people,” he said. “You’re afraid of getting stuck with a needle. So we looked at the records. In two and a half years, we’ve had a staff member get stung, and it was while he was looking, and it was a pin.”
Leah Cook, the regional public health manager for the Prairies, oversaw the implementation of the supervised injection site at Drumheller and said it is “the only known service of its kind in a prison setting on the world stage, which I am incredibly proud of.”
Cook said a “safe zone” was created so program participants could bring their own drug supply into the observation room without fear of being searched, and it has been nicknamed the “yellow brick road.”
The Correctional Service of Canada did not immediately respond to questions sent over the weekend.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 2, 2022.
Marie-Danielle Smith, The Canadian Press