GOV'T JAIL-HOUSE TATTOOS NIXED

The government's plan to cancel the controversial federal prison
tattoo-parlour program has local harm-reduction advocates concerned
the move will jeopardize inmates' safety.

Implemented by Corrections Canada in 2004, the program opened six
tattoo parlours in federal prisons across the country to the tune of
$700,000 to help curb the transmission of HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis C
infection among the prison population.

While harm-reduction critics like Randy White, president of the Drug
Prevention Network of Canada, see the cancellation of the "wasteful
tattooing program" as a positive, others view the move as a step backwards.

"This tattoo equipment program is equivalent to a clean-needle
exchange program to reduce the transmission of blood-born diseases
within the prisons. It's not some luxury benefit," said Jason Gratl,
president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association. "There is a
misguided smallness at work in this policy decision."