In this past annual report, we wrote our concern that the safe needle exchange program isn't working as it was supposed to because most of the attention has been focused on security rather than on health and harm reduction. There are thus very few takers.
We're concerned that the present model, as implemented by the service, does not match best practices in other jurisdictions. It's clear to me that a good program reduces the spread of infectious diseases and also lowers the risk to staff. If you don't have a proper prison needle exchange program, you increase the risk of staff being pricked by needles during searches, whether strip searches or cell searches.
Once you have a prison needle exchange, those things go away.