On Point: Recommendations for Prison-Based Needle and Syringe Programs in Canada

Abstract

This report is the culmination of a multi-phase, multi-year undertaking that involved broad consultation and primary research to create recommendations for implementing prison-based needle and syringe programs (PNSPs), which provide sterile injection equipment to prisoners who inject drugs and help prevent the spread of HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV), in Canadian federal prisons.The report highlights three phases of the research project — a stakeholder meeting (phase 1), prison site visits in Switzerland (phase 2), and a community-based research project (phase 3) — and concludes with six recommendations on how PNSPs can and should be implemented in Canadian prisons without delay.