Prison Needle Exchange Program coming to Bowden, union rep voices concerns

He said a different method for harm reduction, an overdose prevention (OD) site, was set up at the Drumheller Institution in June 2019, which is much safer than the PNEP.

“What it does is it eliminates the needle in the cell, and it puts that use of drugs under the supervision of health care [professionals],” he said, adding with the PNEP, inmates are still sharing needles when they’re not supposed to.

“The reality and the truth about it is it does not change the inmate’s behaviour just because we give them a needle and ask them to be nice with it. So, we’re put into a position now where an overdose prevention site takes that risk away from us and still provides the access for harm reduction and doesn’t allow the inmate to have that needle in their cell.”

Bloomfield said the overdose prevention site at Drumheller has been used more than 400 times since it was implemented last summer.

“We’re stuck with the fact [that] we know that these inmates are utilizing these needles in a way that’s not supported by the [PNEP]. We know it’s a big risk to the inmate as well as correctional officers [and] we know there’s a safer option out there that has been proven at Drumheller Institution…the inmates accept it really well because it’s not an officer now watching over them, it’s a healthcare professional.”

Bloomfield explained that there are approximately eight prisons across the country that feature the Prison Needle Exchange Program, including the Edmonton Institution for Women.

There, the PNEP has been met with some negative reactions from inmates.

“The inmates themselves protested the implementation of this program at the Edmonton Institution for Women. They had put protest signs on their windows, they had put anti-needle signs all over the institution and they didn’t want it, because they understand how much this hurts their progress towards getting clean,” Bloomfield said.

“We’ve had issues at Edmonton Institution for Women with individuals on the program being kicked off for not following the rules. We have not had that with the overdose prevention site, we’ve had a tremendous number of people go through that and actually get counselled into utilizing counselling or different processes because they’re talking to a nurse the whole time instead of hiding in a corner trying to avoid the correctional officer.”

Bloomfield said when it comes to setting up the PNEP over the OD prevention site model in prisons, it comes down to cost, particularly around hiring nursing staff.

He remarked that safety should be the number one factor, for both inmates and staff, and not costs associated with new hires. He said it’s only a matter of time before someone is “seriously hurt”.

“When you get exposed through the poke of a needle, there is a cocktail you have to take, we go directly to the hospital and it’s six weeks of ‘don’t touch your kids, your wife or anything else’ because you’re too toxic to kiss your kids at night. That’s something a lot of us have to face,” he told LNN.

“Then you have a year after that before you’re cleared for AIDS and all that type of stuff.”

Bloomfield said as correctional officers, their mission is to support the public and protect them from what they’re dealing with inside prisons, but now, officers are asking for the public’s help.

“We’re just asking for the public to please call in, call their MP and express their support for us to go with overdose prevention versus [the PNEP] and please help us keep our environment as safe as possible,” he said.

“This is a corporate position that is going to require government intervention to change, for sure.”

The Prison Needle Exchange Program comes into effect at Bowden Institution on March 1, 2020.

by Justin Goulet

Prison Needle Exchange Program coming to Bowden, union rep voices concerns

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