beans_mom
07-09-2003, 02:16 PM
Corrections may ink deal on jail tattoos
By BOB KLAGER, SUN MEDIA
For decades, criminals have worn it as a badge of honour, a primitive branding associated with doing time.
But the prison tattoo could soon be synonymous with infectious-disease control at federal institutions across the country.
The Correctional Service of Canada is considering a safe-tattooing program for federal inmates aimed at reducing the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C in prisons.
No implementation date has been set but an internal CSC working group is examining the plan as part of a drug strategy targeting illegal substances in prisons.
"If we go ahead with such a plan, we would make it that all institutions and all inmates would benefit," Corrections' Canada spokesman Guy Campeau said yesterday.
"There's no other jurisdiction in the world that has safe tattooing programs ... and that's why we want to take our time."
Sylvain Martel, national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says the union was never consulted on the project and correctional officers are worried the safe-tattooing program is merely a precursor to greater risks inside federal institutions.
"One of the concerns we always have is the needles, said Martel.
"It's always HIV-AIDS and all the other infectious diseases that are rampant in federal institutions."
By BOB KLAGER, SUN MEDIA
For decades, criminals have worn it as a badge of honour, a primitive branding associated with doing time.
But the prison tattoo could soon be synonymous with infectious-disease control at federal institutions across the country.
The Correctional Service of Canada is considering a safe-tattooing program for federal inmates aimed at reducing the spread of HIV and Hepatitis C in prisons.
No implementation date has been set but an internal CSC working group is examining the plan as part of a drug strategy targeting illegal substances in prisons.
"If we go ahead with such a plan, we would make it that all institutions and all inmates would benefit," Corrections' Canada spokesman Guy Campeau said yesterday.
"There's no other jurisdiction in the world that has safe tattooing programs ... and that's why we want to take our time."
Sylvain Martel, national president of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, says the union was never consulted on the project and correctional officers are worried the safe-tattooing program is merely a precursor to greater risks inside federal institutions.
"One of the concerns we always have is the needles, said Martel.
"It's always HIV-AIDS and all the other infectious diseases that are rampant in federal institutions."