Push on for prison syringe program

 

When Raylene Elizabeth Nicole started doing time for assault at Springhill Institution, she was surprised the prison was rife with even more drugs than the one she had been incarcerated at in Ontario.

 

"At Springhill, it was like its own society," Ms. Nicole, then 39, said in a sworn affidavit to a national association collecting data on drug use by Canadian prisoners.

 

"There were even more drugs than there was at Kingston.

 

"I stuck to heroin at Springhill, where I snorted and injected it.

 

"I used a syringe from health care or a homemade syringe. I shared that syringe, too, with a lot of people. The syringe got passed around between at least seven of us."

 

Ms. Nicole’s story, contained in a new report called Under the Skin compiled by the Canada HIV/AIDS Legal Network, is no surprise to those lobbying Ottawa to establish safe needle and syringe programs behind bars.

 

"What we hear is that in some of the facilities, (at times) there’s more drugs than on the street," said Cindy MacIsaac, a program director at Direction 180, a Halifax methadone program that helps stabilize addicts.

 

Ms. MacIsaac said in an interview Tuesday "it’s not unusual for some to start injecting while they’re inside prison." Direction 180’s offices are on Gottingen Street.

 

It’s estimated that prisoners have rates of HIV and hepatitis C that are 10 to 20 per cent higher than the general public.

 

More than 90 per cent of those who were incarcerated return to the community, "facilitating the spread of diseases," the legal network’s report, released Tuesday, found.

 

Ms. MacIsaac said drugs tend to arrive in local prisons "in waves" and inmates have ready access to everything from Dilaudid to OxyContin to morphine.

 

Ms. Nicole, like many of the 49 other inmates who provided testimonials for the Canada HIV/AIDS Legal Network, consistently spoke of how easy it is to get drugs behind bars.

 

The inmates were interviewed in 2008 and 2009.

 

Another incarcerated woman from Nova Scotia implored authorities to provide clean needles in institutions.

 

"There are too many people catching hepatitis C and AIDS in prison," Lenita Sparks of Halifax said in her affidavit.

 

"I know 13 women and men who caught hepatitis C or HIV while they were inside."

 

She wondered why prisoners are given courses on infectious diseases but are never handed clean needles.

 

Ms. MacIsaac thinks authorities are resisting clean needle programs, which exist in European prisons, because of the "stigma" attached to them.

 

"It’s controversial. There’s stigma. . . . No one’s listening."

 

Of the 180 clients who are being helped by Direction 180, Ms. MacIsaac estimates that 80 per cent have hepatitis C and about 18 per cent have HIV. About 25 per cent of the people who have those illnesses contracted them behind bars, she said.

 

The Canadian Medical Association has been pushing the federal government to implement a clean needle pilot program in one of its prisons for about four years.

 

Before Parliament was prorogued, a House of Commons committee was studying Correctional Service Canada’s handling of mental health issues and addictions within penitentiaries. The legal network was supposed to appear before the committee this month to make its case for providing such programs in prison.

 

But it looks like the organization will have a tough battle.

 

On Tuesday, the federal Public Safety Department said in an email that providing needles to inmates goes against its mandate.

 

Department spokesman David Charbonneau said Ottawa has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to drugs behind bars and allowing them could harm correctional staffers and the public.

 

"Providing needles for illicit drug use runs counter to that policy," Mr. Charbonneau said in the email. "Illicit drugs in federal prisons compromise the safety and security of correctional staff, as well as our communities."

 

He said drug use would undermine rehabilitation programs inside prisons.

 

But Ms. MacIsaac’s group hopes Ottawa will listen to the voices of the incarcerated.

"It’s about human rights."

 

Corey Ritchie Brian saw what happens if help isn’t provided inside prison walls.

 

"I saw a young guy who came in on a 16-month sentence, become addicted to drugs and contracted HIV," the Halifax man wrote in his affidavit.

 

"He ended up hanging himself in his cell. If they had . . . needle exchanges in institutions a long time ago, it would have saved a lot of people’s lives."