RT Article
T1 Drug Use Stigma and Reprisal: Barriers to Prison Needle Exchange in Canada
JF The prison journal
VO 104
IS 3
SP 344
OP 364
A1 De Shalit, Ann
A2 Van der Meulen, Emily 1977-
A2 Chu, Sandra Ka Hon
A2 Thomas, Rhiannon
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1887245995
AB After years of advocacy by a range of civil society groups, supported by scholarly and empirical research, Canada's federal prison service implemented a needle exchange program at select carceral institutions in 2018. Since the program rollout, however, uptake has remained minimal. To understand why, we conducted the first independent and national study of the program, interviewing 30 people who were incarcerated at one of the prisons with a needle exchange. Our findings show that drug use stigma and anticipated or actual reprisal from correctional officers, particularly related to breaches of confidentiality for program participants, markedly impede access and utilization.
K1 community-based research
K1 Former inmates
K1 Correctional Officers
K1 Harm Reduction
K1 needle exchange
K1 injection drug use
DO 10.1177/00328855241240142