CANADIAN PRISON INMATES NEED CLEAN NEEDLES FOR DOING DRUGS, REPORT URGES

The first time Lenita Sparks shot drugs was inside a Kingston prison,
with ten women sharing a needle.

"We had to keep sharpening it on a matchstick cover," the 47-year-old
former inmate says in a new report out Tuesday, entitled "Under the
Skin," which calls for needle and syringe exchange programs in
Canada's prisons.

The use of dirty needles has led to the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C
in federal correctional institutions and is putting all Canadians at
risk, since 90 per cent of inmates return to the community, according
to the report, which was produced by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal
Network, a Toronto-based advocacy organization.

Two years ago, the Public Health Agency of Canada concluded prison
needle exchange programs, already in use in more than 60 countries,
offer clear benefits such as a reduction in needle-sharing, but
virtually none of the problems that worry prison guards, including
syringes being used as weapons.

Yet so far, the federal government has resisted, opting to pour its
resources into stopping drugs from being smuggled into prisons in the
first place.

"To deny this (needle-sharing) happens in prison and to focus
exclusively on preventing drugs from entering - it doesn't work,"
Sandra Ka Hon Chu, the report's author and a senior policy analyst
for the legal network, told the Star in an interview.

In 2008, the organization issued a report called "Clean Switch,"
which assembled legal and human rights arguments in favour of prison
needle exchange programs.

Following that, Chu set out to put a human face on the issue,
interviewing and collecting sworn statements from 50 inmates and
former inmates across the country, both men and women.

They included a 50-year-old Toronto woman identified only as
"Dorothy," who recalled stealing needles from the nursing office at
the former Prison for Women in Kingston, where about 40 per cent of
inmates routinely used drugs to feed their addictions or simply "pass
their time."

"I saw everything," she said. "I saw people banging drugs, snorting
drugs, drinking perfume, drinking floor cleaner, whatever they could
get their hands on."

A 2008 newsletter on infectious diseases published by the federal
correctional service and public health agency reported that about 28
per cent of inmates have Hepatitis C, up from 20 per cent eight years earlier.

Chu said needle exchange programs are already available in many
communities and federal prisoners should be entitled to use them just
like everyone else.

Denying them access to such a program is a form of cruel and unusual
punishment and, arguably, a constitutional violation, since inmates
were sent to prison for the purposes of having their liberty
restricted, not so they could be subjected to a life-threatening
disease, Chu contends.

Her report points out the federal government has already implemented
some "harm-reduction measures" in prisons to cut down on the problems
posed by the use of dirty needles, including making bleach available.

But, Chu says, bleach is not fully effective in reducing HIV
transmission and some drug addicts do not follow proper disinfecting
procedures because needle-cleaning is time-consuming and inmates are
afraid of getting caught.

In advance of the report's release on Tuesday, the network sent
copies to the federal Commissioner of Corrections, Don Head, as well
as Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, federal Health Minister Leona
Aglukkaq and Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

She also hopes to discuss it with federal correctional officials at a
meeting this month.