Overdose prevention site opens at Kingston prison, but inmates remain wary

A cabinet full of needles, vein finders and tourniquets stands inside the health-care wing of the Collins Bay Institution, next to two small rooms equipped with stainless steel tables, chairs and posters about where to inject drugs.

It's all part of the new overdose prevention service (OPS) at the Kingston, Ont., prison — a place where inmates can use drugs under medical supervision.

Only one thing is missing: the inmates.

The OPS opened on Nov. 28 but has yet to see its first visitor.

That hesitation isn't uncommon, according to Matthew Secord, manager of health and rehabilitation for the prison.

"With any new program implemented, there's going to be a period in which we need to establish trust with the population," he said. "We're working with an incredibly vulnerable and stigmatized population."

Secord said in order to raise awareness about the program, staff are handing out pamphlets and offering inmates who use drugs the opportunity to tour the space and ask questions.

The OPS at Collins Bay is the third in Canada and the first in Ontario.

Roger Martin, nursing project manager for Correctional Service Canada (CSC), said it took roughly three weeks for inmates to start using the program when it opened at the Drumheller Institution in Alberta and about three months at the Springhill Institution in Nova Scotia.

Now, Drumheller typically sees 18-20 active participants, according to Martin, who added approximately 90 inmates across the country have been approved to take part in the program.

To date there have been no overdose deaths at any site where an OPS is active including Collins Bay, he said.

Goal is to reduce overdose deaths

CSC staff gave media a tour of the Kingston location on Monday.

Outside the two OPS rooms are clipboards hanging from the wall with a menu of sorts, outlining the drug use tools that are available including cotton filters, fentanyl strips and BBQ lighters.

Secord said a check mark will go next to any item in use so staff can ensure it's returned before inmates head back to their cells.

"We are providing clean equipment for them to use, but we know what they're having access to," he explained. "It's provided back to us and it's not introducing anything more into the population."

Those clean instruments will help reduce transmission of diseases and infections, but that's not the main purpose of an OPS.

"Our overall goal is to reduce overdose deaths," Secord said.

The approach has received support from the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers (UCCO), but not without some struggle.

"It's almost a moral dilemma for us," Chris Bucholtz, UCCO's Ontario regional president, told CBC in September.

"We're supposed to keep drugs out … yet we're giving them the place to do it."

Prison struggles with drone smuggling

Any substances that would be consumed at the site would be self-supplied, meaning the drugs are smuggled in.

Collins Bay, which has minimum, medium and maximum-security sections, is known as a hot spot for drone drops behind the prison walls.

A CBC investigation showed the number of flights has grown steadily in recent years, leading some staff to refer to the situation as a "drone pandemic."

WATCH | 'Drone pandemic' sees drugs, weapons, phones smuggled into prison:

Blake Wilson, the prison's assistant warden for operations, said he believes that issue is part of the reason the prison was selected for an OPS.

He said staff remain committed to keeping drugs out, but once substances are inside, the program helps keep staff and inmates safer by ensuring the drug use is supervised.

"Anything we can drive into that health-care space rather than in the range spaces is a win," Wilson said. "It's about harm reduction and everyone has really, for the most part, really bought into that."

Martin, the nursing project manager, said CSC is looking at expanding the program further, with plans to set up an OPS at the Warkworth Institution in Ontario and the Drummond Institution in Quebec.