Opioid crisis: Nearly 1 in 4 federal inmates receiving treatment for addiction

When people lack hope, that’s when they use substances more. The opioid epidemic does not stop at prison walls in Canada, where nearly one in four federal inmates are receiving opioid agonist treatments like methadone or suboxone. This has advocates like independent Senator Kim Paige calling for increased supports to help prisoners who are struggling with addiction. If people are engaged in programs, if they have regular access to visits, they are far less likely to be involved in any kind of drug activity, illegal or otherwise. As of February 4th, 3129 of Canada’s more than 13,000 federal inmates, we’re receiving some form of opioid agonist treatment. That’s 23% of the federal prison population. This is more than triple the rate of inmates receiving oats In 2016 when the opioid crisis really began to take off when just 9% were receiving the treatment. Both the health authorities, community prison services were were quite challenged with the rapid increase on on patients that ended up being on opioid use disorder. Peak the wait list for treatment was over 400 people, but now it’s in the 90s. The prison guard union says they do see some issues with the program, including instances of diversion of prescribed medication. When we’re monitoring those inmates, when you have 100 of them in the institution on a given day, operationally in the morning, to get that routine done is a nightmare. And I’ve been a correctional officer for 21 years and I’ve never seen this amount of drugs inside of our prison walls and fences. The the crisis is is alarming. Correctional Service Canada does offer mental health services for inmates, but paints as much of the psychiatry resources are spent on risk assessments. She argues there needs to be a greater shift to focus on reintegrating people into society whenever we relegate people who are suffering with addictions, especially when it’s linked to past trauma to prison. We’re basically reinforcing and increasing the risks to them in terms of their inability to be in the community. David Baxter, Global News. Ottawa.