Prisoners sue over alleged breach of privacy

Disclosure of personal information violated charter rights, group says

A group of prisoners at Mission Institution is suing the authorities over an alleged breach of privacy that they claim posed a threat to them.

The 47 prisoners say that from about April to July 2020, employees of the federal medium and minimum security prison posted notices on a food services cart or multiple food services carts containing personal and medical information.

They say the information included their names, fingerprint serial numbers and cell numbers, as well as prescription medications including methadone or suboxone, and any dietary or allergy restrictions.

The notices also said whether the prisoners participated in the prison inmate needle exchange program and were unemployed or suspended from work. All of the prison kitchen staff, all prisoner kitchen workers and all correctional staff and prisoners housed in one of the living units in the prison could access and read the information, says the notice of civil claim filed recently in B.C. Supreme Court.

Prescription drugs have significant value and are in high demand for recreational use and trade by many prisoners in federal correctional institutions, including Mission Institution, it says. “The embarrassment, stress and anxiety suffered by the plaintiffs as a result of the disclosure were further aggravated by the fact of their incarceration,” says the lawsuit. “The plaintiffs were acutely aware, and feared, that other inmates who read the notices might attempt to obtain their medication, whether through theft, violence or threat of violence.”

Disclosure of the information violated the prisoners' charter rights to security of the person and correctional authorities have an obligation to protect against such disclosure, says the suit.

The lawsuit says that in mid-August, the prison provided a letter to the prisoners acknowledging there was a breach of personal information and saying that food services personnel had taken corrective action to remove the notices and replace them with notices that do not contain sensitive medical info.

The prisoners are seeking general, special and aggravated damages.

In an email, the correctional service said that it had received the lawsuit and was taking time to review it.