NEEDLE EXCHANGE NEEDED IN PRISONS

TORONTO - The alarming prevalence of HIV and hepatitis C infection
among inmates is a health issue that affects all Canadians and
requires the country's prisons to immediately adopt needle-exchange
programs, advocacy groups said yesterday.

"These are transmissible diseases which are being spread within the
prison and have the potential to spread when people come out of the
prison," said Dr. Peter Ford of the Ontario Medical
Association.

"There's a multiplication effect here. This is a public-health
issue."

Programs to prevent the spread of disease in federal and provincial
institutions aren't working, and the absence of exchange programs only
leads to inmates sharing dirty, infected needles, the association said.

Almost one in 50 federal inmates has HIV/AIDS -- a rate 10 times
higher than the general population. The numbers for hepatitis C were
even worse, with almost one-quarter of prisoners testing positive.

"We are dealing with levels of illness and infection which are really
quite startling," said Ford.

Compounding the problem is that once prisoners are released, many
return to the community "unaware that they're infected and can spread
the infection."

The call for a program was welcomed by the HIV-AIDS Legal
Network.

"Issues related to prisoners and prison health are not winners in
terms of public opinion, and they rarely get on the agenda," said
spokesman Glenn Betteridge.

"We're asking politicians to put this on the agenda to protect
communities, the health of prisoners, and the people who work in prisons."

Federal Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan acknowledged the issue
warrants study.

"I think we have to deal in a world of realism in terms of our
penitentiaries and prisons, and obviously there is a challenge to
control infections of whatever kind," she said.

"There's no point in sticking one's head in the sand."

But the union that represents jail guards in Ontario wants needles
kept out of correctional facilities.

"Needles can be used as weapons," said Don Ford of the Ontario Public
Service Employees Union. "Weapons and illegal narcotics are contraband
inside our maximum-security facilities, so we cannot condone them coming in."

Ford also said there's a lack of compelling evidence on whether
prisoners are contracting diseases through drug use while in jails.