James Bloomfield, Prairies regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO), views the rollout and use of overdose prevention sites (OPS) in federal prisons as ridiculous. .“As correctional officers, our overall view is there is no place within a federal correctional facility. This is ridiculous… To put drug use within a federal institution is pretty crazy,” said Bloomfield..UCCO supports the use of OPS only because OPS is better for correctional officers than the current prison needle exchange programs (PNEP)..“We are supportive of the overdose prevention unit as a union and as correctional officers. Only because of the opposite choice that is the prison needle exchange program … which is essentially handing inmates needles and they go and use them in their cells,” said Bloomfield..The OPS nurses do not provide the illegal drug, just the instruments to shoot the dope into the body. .Illegal drugs still need to be smuggled into the prison for the inmate to have access to them..According to Bloomfield, the biggest problem is drones with drone drops happening every day within the system..“We’re dying for drone protection … the service has been lacking in this probably for years. Since drones became available. We knew that they were being used to drop drugs into yards and into our prison settings all over the place. That’s a normal thing for us,” said Bloomfield..“We get constant drug drops inside our prisons. Left, right, and centre.”.Cell phones are the other problem as inmates hide them and use them to coordinate drone drug drops..“We have an unbelievable amount of cell phones that are inside … the inmates have access to them from throwing over the fences or getting them dropped by drones as well,” said Bloomfield..“It creates a very clear communication path for setting up how to drop all that stuff into our prisons … they don’t even need to compromise a staff member anymore.”.Bloomfield said that “the drugs are so free-flowing in prison, it’s easier to get them there than it is on the street.”.Bloomfield blames the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) for doing nothing about stopping the drone drops and the use of illegal cell phones within the prison walls..“They’ve (CSC) been doing truly nothing about it … it is a growing problem for several years now,” said Bloomfield..“We even have some minor drone equipment that we’re using. That is going off like crazy and hitting a lot of the activity, but we’re still missing a lot of the activity. We don’t even have every single site (prison) covered.”.“At this point, our technology doesn’t cover the entire area or all of our needs at all. The government has no true plan that would indicate any true change coming for drone protection or cell phone protection.”.As correctional officers, their job is to keep drugs out of the jails and now inmates are allowed to shoot up drugs right in front of them..“You just trained to try and keep drugs out of jail and now you’re telling them you have to allow this and the inmate does the drugs in front of you. It’s a moral issue for every correctional officer,” said Bloomfield..Another big issue that Bloomfield sees with the OPS and PNEP programs is when an inmate goes to the parole board, it is not in their prison file because of privacy concerns..“They’re not allowed to report that they’re on the program because of privacy complaints … the actual parole board will not have the knowledge of this inmate, who’s using drugs or has a needle to use drugs and his stuff,” said Bloomfield..“I will literally take him out of his cell. Where he could have done drugs that morning when we gave him a needle under the PNEP. You can walk into the parole office and not tell them that he’s a drug addict.”.According to Bloomfield, the CSC does not track recidivism rates of prisoners using the OPS or PNEP, which means they go back out into the community with no way to track if they have a higher chance of going back into the prison system because they are drug addicts..“It just makes it even worse because now we’re putting people back out in the community who have not been detoxed and who may still be full addicts running around our communities,” said Bloomfield..CSC is putting overdose prevention sites (OPS) in federal prisons after a successful trial at the Drumheller Institution in Alberta.."The CSC implemented the OPS in June 2019 at Drumheller Institution and is the only existing prison-based supervised consumption site known worldwide. As of May 2022, the OPS at Drumheller has had 54 individuals approved to participate and the service had a total of 1,587 visits," CSC told the Western Standard.."Implementation of OPS sites is determined based on a number of factors, such as the health needs of the population. Drumheller Institution was chosen based on research that showed increased substance abuse."."There are a number of institutions that are being considered for expansion and implementation of the OPS, including Collins Bay Institution and Springhill Institution and work is underway to further explore and confirm the next targeted sites, including consulting labour partners as well as taking into consideration public health advice."
James Bloomfield, Prairies regional president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO), views the rollout and use of overdose prevention sites (OPS) in federal prisons as ridiculous. .“As correctional officers, our overall view is there is no place within a federal correctional facility. This is ridiculous… To put drug use within a federal institution is pretty crazy,” said Bloomfield..UCCO supports the use of OPS only because OPS is better for correctional officers than the current prison needle exchange programs (PNEP)..“We are supportive of the overdose prevention unit as a union and as correctional officers. Only because of the opposite choice that is the prison needle exchange program … which is essentially handing inmates needles and they go and use them in their cells,” said Bloomfield..The OPS nurses do not provide the illegal drug, just the instruments to shoot the dope into the body. .Illegal drugs still need to be smuggled into the prison for the inmate to have access to them..According to Bloomfield, the biggest problem is drones with drone drops happening every day within the system..“We’re dying for drone protection … the service has been lacking in this probably for years. Since drones became available. We knew that they were being used to drop drugs into yards and into our prison settings all over the place. That’s a normal thing for us,” said Bloomfield..“We get constant drug drops inside our prisons. Left, right, and centre.”.Cell phones are the other problem as inmates hide them and use them to coordinate drone drug drops..“We have an unbelievable amount of cell phones that are inside … the inmates have access to them from throwing over the fences or getting them dropped by drones as well,” said Bloomfield..“It creates a very clear communication path for setting up how to drop all that stuff into our prisons … they don’t even need to compromise a staff member anymore.”.Bloomfield said that “the drugs are so free-flowing in prison, it’s easier to get them there than it is on the street.”.Bloomfield blames the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC) for doing nothing about stopping the drone drops and the use of illegal cell phones within the prison walls..“They’ve (CSC) been doing truly nothing about it … it is a growing problem for several years now,” said Bloomfield..“We even have some minor drone equipment that we’re using. That is going off like crazy and hitting a lot of the activity, but we’re still missing a lot of the activity. We don’t even have every single site (prison) covered.”.“At this point, our technology doesn’t cover the entire area or all of our needs at all. The government has no true plan that would indicate any true change coming for drone protection or cell phone protection.”.As correctional officers, their job is to keep drugs out of the jails and now inmates are allowed to shoot up drugs right in front of them..“You just trained to try and keep drugs out of jail and now you’re telling them you have to allow this and the inmate does the drugs in front of you. It’s a moral issue for every correctional officer,” said Bloomfield..Another big issue that Bloomfield sees with the OPS and PNEP programs is when an inmate goes to the parole board, it is not in their prison file because of privacy concerns..“They’re not allowed to report that they’re on the program because of privacy complaints … the actual parole board will not have the knowledge of this inmate, who’s using drugs or has a needle to use drugs and his stuff,” said Bloomfield..“I will literally take him out of his cell. Where he could have done drugs that morning when we gave him a needle under the PNEP. You can walk into the parole office and not tell them that he’s a drug addict.”.According to Bloomfield, the CSC does not track recidivism rates of prisoners using the OPS or PNEP, which means they go back out into the community with no way to track if they have a higher chance of going back into the prison system because they are drug addicts..“It just makes it even worse because now we’re putting people back out in the community who have not been detoxed and who may still be full addicts running around our communities,” said Bloomfield..CSC is putting overdose prevention sites (OPS) in federal prisons after a successful trial at the Drumheller Institution in Alberta.."The CSC implemented the OPS in June 2019 at Drumheller Institution and is the only existing prison-based supervised consumption site known worldwide. As of May 2022, the OPS at Drumheller has had 54 individuals approved to participate and the service had a total of 1,587 visits," CSC told the Western Standard.."Implementation of OPS sites is determined based on a number of factors, such as the health needs of the population. Drumheller Institution was chosen based on research that showed increased substance abuse."."There are a number of institutions that are being considered for expansion and implementation of the OPS, including Collins Bay Institution and Springhill Institution and work is underway to further explore and confirm the next targeted sites, including consulting labour partners as well as taking into consideration public health advice."
