A federal corrections officer and union rep in Drumheller, AB said his union has grave concerns over the rollout of the Prison Needle Exchange Program across Canada..Momentum for the policy followed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2012 by former prisoner Steven Simons and HIV/AIDS organizations. The applicant became infected with Hepatitis C after a fellow prisoner used his needle at Warkworth Institution..In response, the Prison Needle Exchange Program (PNEP) was piloted in nine institutions beginning in 2018, though the pandemic delayed wider implementation..The applicants were not satisfied and claimed the PNEP was inadequate and unconstitutional and didn’t go far enough. However, they failed to convince Ontario Superior Court Justice Edward Belobaba who dismissed their application in May 2020. He said the program was not yet in its final form and needles posed a safety risk..Regardless, earlier this year, the Correctional Investigator of the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC), an ombudsman for federal offenders, called for “CSC’s zero-tolerance policy to drug use and possession be recalibrated … [against] stigmatizing, targeting or disciplining persons...”.The report also recommended that PNEP criteria “be significantly revamped to encourage participation … with a view to full national implementation within the next 12 months.”.Jacob Suelzle, vice president of the Prairie region for the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, told the Western Standard a national rollout will soon be underway, with the Bowden Institution near Innisfail, AB among the next slated to adopt it..He said he's wary because the PNEP allows prisoners to get needles and take them anywhere and staff won’t be allowed to know who has them..“Our concern besides the safety and weaponization of needles is we're creating an intravenous drug use problem, which is, of course, incredibly more dangerous for overdoses simply because you're using needles.”.Suelzle, who has been a corrections officer at Drumheller Institution for 15 years, said union employees developed the Overdose Prevention Service (OPS) in June 2019 at the institution as a way to accommodate harm reduction while minimizing health threats to inmates and staff. Drumheller remains the only place this is practiced, possibly in the world..“We do the equivalent of a safe injection site in the prison where the access is monitored by healthcare staff and the access to needles is in a confined area. They're searched going and searched going out, no needles leave the area. When the overdose happens, they are immediately responded to. And so, morally, while I may disagree with it, it addresses the concerns of the safety of the institution.”.Suelzle said the soft rollout of the PNEP in nine institutions was restricted to women’s prisons and a few male institutions with minimal organized crime or drug use. However, the Correctional Investigator’s report called for both the OPS and PNEP to be implemented in all 43 CSC facilities. Suelzle expects trouble as the rollout expands..“Should this roll out under the current prescription, that's their needle to have and we have no right to take it away. Not only that, we have nowhere to dispose of these needles,” Suelzle said..“When we hand these needles out, and they return to their cells, we don't know how many people are using that needle. We don't know what's going into that needle. We have an obligation to keep drugs out of the institution. Of course, if they're using needles that indicates there are drugs being used ….".“The other thing with these needles is they can be used for compromising security devices including handcuffs, leg irons, padlocks all that kind of thing. We have a very creative population.”. Jail guards protestJail guards protest .Suelzle said his union tried to protest the policy in Ottawa using a 25-foot paper mache needle as a prop. He found it ironic that the prop was barred from Parliament Hill for safety reasons..The PNEP makes him wary for the safety of everyone because in prison “everything is actively used as a weapon.”.“Right now, we do not have puncture resistant gloves; we have no personal protective equipment that will address this concern. So [if you get stabbed] you seek medical treatment for any and every disease that you can think of. When you go home to your family, you don't know what you're possibly bringing to them,” Suelzle said..“The emotional toll that takes, frankly, is disgusting. You don't know whether you should kiss your wife, your kids, your baby, because you have no idea what you've just been exposed to in your blood. We have no access to the inmates' medical records, and we have [previously] had inmates attack officers and staff members with needles that they've used on themselves.”.Suelzle said officers were instructed going forward to disregard when they see prisoners injecting themselves. He said this is an awkward contradiction to other drug policies and leaves him concerned about liability in an overdose death..“I have no doubt in my mind prison officials will not have my back. When the fentanyl crisis began, the overdose situation in the prisons and particularly in Drumheller was rampant. And there were officers severely disciplined for their response, which we were not trained on.”.More needles won’t aid corrections officers in their constant battle against contraband entering the prison. Suelzle said the CSC has been slow to respond to union demands for better ways to deal with drone planes dropping drugs, cell phones, and tobacco into jail yards..“At Drumheller, we had up to six drones over the institution at one time. We have drones at institutions literally every day, and the accuracy and the size of the packages that they can deliver, it's changing significantly. Our biggest fear is that we're going to have a firearm introduced. That is scary,” Suelzle said..“Inside, we're not equipped to deal with the list of threats. We've seized millions of dollars of contraband through drone introduction, and we have no idea what we haven't caught. But frankly, our belief is that if they're gambling with the loss of millions of dollars, their payoff obviously has to be enough to offset that.”.In a statement, CSC Senior Media Relations Advisor Marie Pier Lécuyer confirmed to the Western Standard the PNEP and OPS would be implemented nationwide “in comprehensive consultation with patients, employees and labour partners. To date, we've updated health promotion information for the PNEP and the OPS and we've provided training to CSC health staff to increase understanding of substance use and stigma.”.Regarding safety, Lécuyer insisted, “PNEP has been a standing agenda item on the UCCO-SACC-CSN National Health & Safety Policy Committee meetings since inception….“It would not be appropriate to provide details on the specifics of technology or intelligence strategies used to counter drones. CSC also continues to research and introduce new technologies as they become available to facilitate the detection of contraband, including drones.”.Suelzle said although the PNEP is slated to begin in Bowden Institution near Innisfail in a matter of days, there is “no plan for PPE, sharps disposal or handling, training, or other procedures.” He said in response to the rollout of PNEP, employees typically have two responses..“We get severe anger that the employer is discarding our safety like this. And we get a very emotional response of, does the government not give any regard to my emotional wellbeing and my physical wellbeing?” he said..“Frankly, you'd have to be out of your mind to sign up for that kind of job where you have no protection by your employer in this way. We wear stab-proof vests with the understanding that that we could be shanked or stabbed at any time, but now we have no protection given to us against blood borne diseases from hypodermic needles..“This is a very different thing than being physically assaulted in a traditional way that is generally accepted in our workplace, which is disgusting to say. Most of us have wrapped our heads around that potential threat. We can't wrap our heads around the employer being okay with blood borne diseases being something that we can be assaulted with, and potentially contaminate our homes and our families with.”.Although harm reduction policies are widely accepted in academia, Suelzle said the PNEP makes no sense to the average person..“It's insane. It's insane. Every conversation we have with anyone on the outside, you get that confused look in their face. And I think the general public thinks we must be coming up with some Dr. Seuss story. This can't be real. Surely something that defies logic so blatantly can't be real. Well, let me tell you, this is exactly what's going on.”
