Tag: Prison | CATIE Blog

Unlocking the Gates: From corrections to community

April 28, 2025 • By Mo Korchinski

People with prison experience are disproportionately affected by hepatitis C. Criminalizing drug use leads more people who use drugs to end up in prison settings, where a lack of access to sterile needles, syringes and tattoo equipment increases the risk of hepatitis C transmission. Barriers to care in prisons—and the many challenges people face after release—often lead people to go undiagnosed and untreated. Unlocking the Gates is a peer-led organization in British Columbia that supports individuals being released from corrections through a variety of services, including pre-release planning and transition support, probation/bail resolution and warrant support. To better understand what’s...

Prison health is public health: The right to hepatitis C prevention, diagnosis and care in Canada’s correctional settings

July 5, 2022 • By Jennifer van Gennip

People who are incarcerated (PWAI) are identified as a priority population for hepatitis C care, as they are 40 times more likely to be exposed to the virus than Canada’s general population.

COVID-19 in prisons: What needs to be done in Ontario

July 27, 2020 • By Claudia Medina, Eveline Allen, Chris McNab and Nicole Alexander

Immediately after Ontario declared the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as being a public health emergency in mid-March 2020, all visits from family and friends and programming were suspended in prisons in the province.

With little information from the Ministry of the Solicitor General regarding their efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Prisoners’ HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN) was flooded with phone calls from prisoners concerned about their health and the well-being of their family and friends.

Six ways to make harm reduction work in Canada’s prisons

April 19, 2016 • By Emily van der Meulen and Sandra Ka Hon Chu

In Canada today, prisoners who inject drugs need to share needles, many of which have been used numerous times by other prisoners. Without access to sterile injection equipment, rates of HIV and hepatitis C virus are much higher behind bars than in the broader community. Prison-based needle and syringe programs (PNSPs) are an important way to address this public health problem, yet Canadian correctional authorities often claim they won’t work. A recent study demonstrates that PNSPs are indisputably feasible in Canada and should be implemented now.