Pubdate: Tue, 15 Jul 2008
Source: Winnipeg Free Press (CN MB)
Copyright: 2008 Winnipeg Free Press
Contact: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/info/letters/index.html
Website: http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/502
Author: Jen Skerritt
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/hr.htm (Harm Reduction)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/prison.htm (Incarceration)

NEEDLE-EXCHANGES FOR FEDERAL PRISONS URGED

Health activists are urging the Harper government to implement 
needle-exchange programs in federal prisons, saying the rising number 
of inmates infected with HIV and other diseases poses a serious 
threat to public health.

Richard Elliot, executive director of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal 
Network, said studies from prisons across Canada have shown that 
inmates have 10 times the rate of HIV than the general population and 
more than 20 times the rate of Hepatitis C -- a blood-borne disease 
that affects the liver and is spread through sharing drug equipment.

Many inmates are drug users and Elliot said they often resort to 
makeshift needles made from things like ballpoint pens to inject 
themselves and pass around to other inmates.

While federal prisons do offer condoms and bleach to sterilize 
makeshift drug equipment in an attempt to reduce the scourge of 
disease, Elliot said it's not enough to stem the number of infections 
growing out of drug use and unsafe tattooing.

Eventually, Elliot said, inmates get out of prison and can bring the 
infectious diseases into the community.

According to Correction Services Canada, 1.6 per cent of federal 
inmates -- about 218 people -- were known to be HIV positive in 2006.

The rate of infection in the general population is about 0.2 per cent.

"It's high and it's going up," Elliot said during a recent visit to 
Winnipeg. "We disproportionately incarcerate drug users who are 
engaged in high-risk behaviour and we're putting them in prisons 
where there's limited access to addiction treatment."

A spokesman for Correctional Services Canada said they are unable to 
say how many inmates at Stony Mountain Institution are living with 
HIV, saying it is a "violation of the Privacy Act."

However, statistics made available to the Free Press five years ago 
showed the Prairie region had the second-highest number of federal 
inmates infected with HIV in Canada, with an estimated 1.8 per cent 
of the population infected.

No federal prisons support needle-exchange programs in Canada, and a 
pilot project that introduced safe-tattooing to curb the rising 
number of prison infections was axed in 2006 by federal Public Safety 
Minister Stockwell Day.

Countries such as Switzerland and Iran offer needle-exchange programs 
to inmates.

A spokeswoman for Day's office said he is unavailable to comment on 
the issue, but that the federal government does not support "the use 
of illegal drugs or facilitating the use of illegal drugs in our 
prisons system."

"We will continue to support education initiatives that Correctional 
Service of Canada has put in place to educate inmates about the 
dangers of illicit tattooing," Day's press secretary Melisa Leclerc 
said in an e-mail statement Monday.

"However, like all Canadians, inmates must take responsibility for 
their own health."

Anne Marie DiCenso, executive director of Toronto-based Prisoners' 
HIV/AIDS Support Action Network, said as many as 60 per cent of 
incarcerated Canadians are current drug users, and not offering them 
clean needles is a big health concern.

She said the government already supports other harm-reduction 
programs in prison, including offering condoms to inmates to promote 
safe sex, even though they don't want inmates to have sex in jail.

DiCenso said not offering clean needles may cost the health system 
more in the long run, noting it costs between $20,000 and $30,000 a 
year to care for a person who is HIV positive.
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MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom