NEEDLE EXCHANGE NEEDED TO CURB RISING HIV RATE IN CANADIAN PRISONS:
ADVOCACY GROUPS

TORONTO - Rates of HIV among inmates in federal prisons appear to be
rising dramatically, prompting advocacy groups to call for sweeping
changes to prevent further spread of the disease, both inside the
institutions and in the community at large.

A newly released report from Correctional Service Canada revealed
that 4.6 per cent of prisoners reported having HIV-AIDS in 2007, more
than double the 1.6 per cent rate cited in previous reports. The 2007
survey data are the most recent available.

"When we found the HIV prevalence rate, we were astounded at the
number of 4.6 per cent," said Sandra Ka Hon Chu, a senior policy
analyst with the Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network in Toronto, who
noted that prevalence rate is 15 times higher than that found in
general population.

"So this is the new reality we're working with," she said Wednesday,
deeming the HIV infection rate "comparable to many countries in the
region of sub-Saharan Africa."

The report also found the estimated rate of hepatitis C among federal
prisoners was 31 per cent - 39 times greater than that found in the community.

Incarcerated women, and especially Aboriginal women, were found to be
disproportionately infected with HIV and hepatitis C.

The survey, which involved questionnaires filled out by 3,370
prisoners, showed 34 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women used
non-injection drugs, while 17 per cent of men and 14 per cent of
women were injection-drug users.

Advocacy groups want Ottawa to implement needle-exchange programs to
stop the spread of HIV and hepatitis C through injection-drug use.

The Canadian HIV-AIDS Legal Network, which was not involved in
writing the report, says about half of prisoners surveyed reported
sharing used needles or syringes to inject drugs. Those are typically
opiates like heroin and cocaine which are smuggled into prisons by
visitors and occasionally even by staff, said Ka Hon Chu.

She said drug-using prisoners have reported stealing syringes from
medical services within their institutions or fashioning makeshift needles.

"And that's the scariest part - things being made from rubber tubing
or pens that create large scars or wounds in the arm," she said. "So
anything they can imagine using they will get their hands on, they
will create a needle with it."

With no clean-needle program in place in any federal or provincial
prison or jail in Canada, it is not unusual for "filthy" needles to
be shared among 30 or 40 inmates, said HIV specialist Dr. Peter Ford.

The retired Queen's University professor, who has worked with
prisoner populations for years, said he sees nothing new in the
report other than more realistic prevalence figures.

"None of this is news to them," he said of Corrections Canada.
"People have been telling them for the last 15 to 20 years that they
have to do something about it. They have not done anything about it,
so clearly they have to take a very serious look at syringe-exchange
in prison."

But Ford doesn't see that happening any time soon.

"Trying to sell needle exchange in prisons to the current
Conservative government would be ... like selling condoms to the
Catholic Church."

Ka Hon Chu said in countries around the world that have adopted
in-prison needle-exchange programs, the results have been mostly positive.

"I think it's just we don't want to feel like we're failing by
providing these implements to people to inject drugs or enable them,"
she said of Canada's prison system.

"But the studies have shown that where the programs exist ... there's
no increase in the use of drugs or injection drugs. There is actually
a decrease in (the use of) syringes and needles and increasing
referrals to drug addiction treatment programs."

Yet crime bills recently proposed by the Harper government have
included minimum mandatory-sentencing policies, which prisoner
advocacy groups say would increase the number of people incarcerated
and potentially lead to even higher rates of HIV and hepatitis C.

On Wednesday, a Corrections Canada spokeswoman said prison-based
needle-exchange programs are not being considered.

"The government has a zero-tolerance policy for drugs in our
institutions," Christelle Chartrand said by email. "Providing needles
for illicit drug use runs counter to that policy. Illicit drugs in
federal prisons compromise the safety and security of correctional
staff as well as our communities."

Chartrand said CSC has a comprehensive anti-drug strategy combined
with a number of health-promotion practices and harm-reduction
measures to prevent the spread of infectious diseases.

DiCenso said the average Canadian may wonder why they should care
about needle-exchange and other programs to prevent infections in
people who are illicit drug users and have been incarcerated because
they have broken the law.

For one thing, she said, it's far more expensive for society to treat
cases of HIV or hepatitis C than to prevent the diseases in the first place.

And secondly, those infections won't be contained within prison walls.