Source: Vancouver Province Contact: Pubdate: Wed 29 Oct 1997 Author: Jack Keating, Staff Reporter Experts warn AIDS prison crisis ahead: They want sterile needles, methadone to protect prisoners and the public By: Jack Keating, Staff Reporter Federal prison authorities were warned yesterday that an AIDS catastrophe among prisoners is just around the corner. ``The correctional service is failing to respond to the HIV crisis in prisons,'' Dr. Ralf Jurgens, project coordinator for the Canadian AIDS Society and Canadian HIV/AIDS Network, told an AIDS conference at the Bayshore Inn. Rates of infection with the human immunodeficiency virus among prisoners are more than 10 times as high as among the general population, said the Montreal doctor. Bleach, sterile injection equipment and methadone maintenance treatment must be made available in prisons to avoid an infectiousdisease epidemic that will spread to the public, he said. ``We emphasize that this does not mean condoning drug use or giving the prisoners the right to use drugs, but is a pragmatic and necessary health measure that will better protect prisoners, staff and the public,'' said Jurgens, author of HIV/AIDS in Prisons: Final Report. Released in September 1996, not one of the report's 38 recommendations has been implemented. ``Because Canada is experiencing an increasing epidemic of HIV among injection drug users and because many injection drug users spend years of their lives in prisons, the number of prisoners with HIV or AIDS will continue to grow,'' he said. ``This is a publichealth issue,'' said Dr. Peter Ford, who works with prisoners at Kingston Penitentiary in Ontario. ``These guys eventually get out and will have contact with the public. The prisoners tell me it's easier to get drugs in prison than on the streets.There's no problem getting drugs. It's the same in every prison. ``These guys are all sharing the same needles. It's going to be a disaster, worse than the HIV epidemic that's happening on (Vancouver's) downtown east side right now.'' Said Tasha Yovetich, national programs consultant at the Canadian AIDS Society: ``We know that over 25 per cent of Vancouver's injection drug users are testing positive for HIV and rates are still increasing. ``When is Correctional Services Canada finally going to implement responsible change that will protect prisoners and staff from HIV and hepatitis infection?'' One in three prisoners has hepatitis C. ``The time for change is overdue,'' said Yovetich. Judy Portman, coordinator of AIDS for the correctional service, said an announcement is pending on methadone. The department is still studying a needle exchange that would end the deadly practice of sharing needles. There are 34,000 prisoners in Canada. Of those, 14,000 are in penitentiaries. B.C. has a total of about 4,500 prisoners. The experts cited Switzerland, Germany and Australia which have made sterile injection equipment available to prisoners as models for Canada to follow. ``The health of the prisoners improved, there was no increase in drug consumption and needles were not used as weapons,'' said Jurgens. Jurgens said in his report Canada's drug laws need reform. ``The financial and human costs of these drug laws are enormous and prisons are burdened with a problem society fails to deal with and that (prisons) are even less equipped to deal with.''