Evaluating the pros of the Prison Needle Exchange Program

Following that discussion, LNN spoke with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network’s director of research and advocacy Sandra Ka Hon Chu, who talked about the pros of the program.

“They’ve [prison needle and syringe programs] been studied for more than 20 years and they have been proven to reduce the risk of infection from HIV and Hepatitis C,” she said.

“They’ve been proven to reduce the risk of overdose and other health issues like abscesses that come from reusing makeshift equipment that people have been circulating inside [prisons] and they also promote open conversations with healthcare staff.”

Ka Hon Chu noted that there has “never been a single recorded incident of any attack with equipment used from these programs anywhere in the world”.

She believes incarcerated individuals who use a program like the PNEP wouldn’t want to compromise their participation in the program by using the provided needles as a weapon.

PROBLEMS WITH THE PROGRAM

Ka Hon Chu said the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network does recognize that the PNEP does have its problems, mostly revolving around confidentiality of participants.

“Confidentiality is not preserved in the current program. There are ways to preserve their [participants] confidentiality but if people are scared of outing themselves as a person who uses drugs, then they’re less likely to participate,” she said.

“If access if not an issue, then everyone should, in theory, have their own equipment and no one should share and therefore, you know, that equipment would be safer and kept in a regulated place versus hidden because people are scared of getting in trouble with their makeshift equipment.”

She said needle exchange programs can support confidentiality, but that’s something the current program is lacking.

PNEP VS. OVERDOSE PREVENTION SITE

An alternative to the PNEP is an overdose (OD) prevention site to be set up at institutions, such as the one set up at the Drumheller Institution.

Ka Hon Chu said the more harm reduction measures there are, the better because prisoners have a human right to access equivalent healthcare services.

“I think they serve slightly different purposes, although there’s some overlap,” she said, talking about the links between OD sites and the PNEP.

“It’s harder from a logistical point of view to see how an overdose prevention site could be delivered confidentially because to go to the site you would need to sort of advertise that you are going to use drugs, whereas if you are participating in a program where confidentiality is preserved, people don’t need to know that you’re using drugs in your cell.”

She said in an ideal world, institutions would actually feature both a PNEP as well as an OD prevention site service. She included equipping all prisoners with naloxone as another harm reduction option.

Naloxone is a medication used to fight the effects of opioids, such as an overdose.

“First healthcare staff were being provided with naloxone then correctional officers were being trained in naloxone administration and hopefully we will see a day where naloxone is available to people inside as well – the actually prisoners, so they could be trained and administer naloxone if necessary.”

RISK TO CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS

Ka Hon Chu said it’s no secret that “makeshift needles already exist in the prison system” and to suggest that “giving people needles would suddenly mean that there’s a presence of something that’s not already there” is incorrect.

As for risks to corrections officers being pricked by needles, she said, “it’s far more dangerous to be accidentally pricked with something that’s been used by, like, 50 people with the potential presence of [a] virus than something that’s regulated and has been used by one person.”

She responded to Bloomfield’s comments regarding the response to a correctional officer being pricked by a needle.

When speaking with Lethbridge News Now, Bloomfield said, “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 [correctional officers] have to face.”

In response, Ka Hon Chu said, “I don’t want to minimize the trauma of being accidentally pricked with a needle or taking the medication, but I think he’s [Bloomfield] probably exaggerating with the impacts of medication. If you look at any website that talks about post-exposure prophylaxis there’s potential nausea but there’s no ‘not touching your kids or wife’, so I think it’s a bit of fear-mongering on his part.”

The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network is currently involved in a lawsuit against the federal government to ensure needle exchange programs are implemented in all Canadian institutions.

by Justin Goulet

Evaluating the pros of the Prison Needle Exchange Program

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