Drug injection site set for prison
Expected to open by end of month: union
ED MON T ON • The first supervised drug injection site in the federal corrections system is expected to open as early as the end of June at the penitentiary in Drumheller, Alta., according to the union representing federal correctional officers.
Correctional Service Canada, the government department that runs federal prisons across the country, has refused to confirm or deny whether or not the union’s statement was accurate.
“CSC received an exemption from Health Canada to permit the implementation of an overdose prevention service at Drumheller Institution,” said a statement emailed to the National Post Friday from Correctional Service Canada spokeswoman Stephanie Stevenson. “Discussions and planning concerning the implementation of an overdose prevention service are ongoing.”
( Health Canada, which, the union said approves the permitting process for such facilities, said it “does not discuss the details regarding exemption applications.”)
However, Jeff Wilkins, national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said his organization has been told it will be in place by month’s end.
The news comes as federal corrections officers planned to march through the streets of Ottawa Friday to protest the system currently in place in some prisons, a needle exchange that sees fresh needles distributed to inmates, who tend to have much higher rates of HIV and hepatitis C, to prevent needle-sharing.
“The correctional officers are dead set against the prison needle- exchange and the current way it’s being rolled out,” Wilkins told the Post Thursday, saying officers are concerned about their safety.
As it stands, inmates are given needles in their cells and it’s the responsibility of correctional officers to distribute them. Wilkins said this isn’t solving the problem of needle sharing, and that as harm reduction “is in fact a health- care issue,” a more effective program would include overdose- prevention sites staffed by health- care workers.
The program at t he Drumheller Institution, a medium- security prison about 130 northeast of Calgary, will be run by healthcare workers “under the supervision of ” correctional officers, Wilkins said.
While needle exchanges in prisons have been around for a long time in other countries — Switzerland has had one since 1992 — the system in Canada is relatively new. A pilot project began in this country’s federal prison system in June 2018 at the Grand Valley Institution in Ontario and Atlantic Institution in New Brunswick. As of 2018, Correctional Service Canada estimated 1.2 per cent of inmates had HIV, a rate approaching 10 times that of the general population, where 65,000 of 37 million Canadians have HIV, according to the Canadian Foundation for AIDS Research.
In January 2019, the program was expanded to four other institutions. The government said there have been no overdoses in federal prisons as a result of the exchange program.
“As with all CSC policy and program decisions, the safety and security of staff, the public and inmates are always paramount,” said an email from Stevenson. “CSC continues to have discussions with unions and staff as the program rolls out to address any concerns.” She said there have been no instances of needles being used as weapons in Canadian prisons.
Wilkins said correctional officers have found one needle in the cell of an inmate to whom it was not given, suggesting prisoners are still sharing needles. “We know that they have the ability to share the needles that are being given to them by the government.”
The drugs that will be used at the site are contraband, said Stevenson, not provided by the government.
“We recognize that drugs on occasion will make their way into our penitentiaries. Recognizing this reality, we have a responsibility to safeguard the well-being of those under our care,” she wrote.
SAFETY AND SECURITY ... ARE ALWAYS PARAMOUNT.