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Rob MacDonald repeatedly asked for addiction treatment before leaving a maximum security institution, but despite dozens of formal complaints, Rob MacDonald said he was not receiving any help.
"I thought," Wow, I can not believe I'm going out on the street with this addiction, "MacDonald said recently a week after being released under supervision from the Atlantic Institution. in Renous, New Brunswick, more than a decade behind bars.
MacDonald, 41, said he was worried that his 15 years of opioid addiction would cause him to return to crime while he was using illicit drugs on the outside. He therefore tried desperately to seek treatment from the Federal Prison Service.
"I made 150 requests, probably 70 complaints, for 15 months, trying to tell them," Put me on this. I need it before going out. I want help, I do not want to go back into the community in a high-risk situation, I do not want to do it again, "he said in Halifax, where he lives in a halfway house.
He stated that he complained to the Director and then appealed to the Commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada. One of his complaints to the Commissioner was withheld, but he added that he had been placed on a waiting list due to the limited number of inmates receiving treatment.
When he was incarcerated at Kent Institution in British Columbia between 2017 and 2019 for drug-related offenses and robberies, MacDonald stated that debilitating withdrawal symptoms prompted him to look for life-threatening drugs containing fentanyl and smuggled into the prison.
"At least eight guys died in the 17 to 18 months I spent in Kent," he said.
The Correctional Service linked MacDonald to a Halifax clinic after he was released almost two weeks ago. He is now prescribed the opioid substitute Suboxone. But he added that he should have received the drugs in prison as part of the agency's treatment program, which also includes methadone, so he can focus on finding a job in the drug sector. construction to put his life back on track.
Ivan Zinger, Canada's Offender Ombudsman, stated that the Correctional Service had not provided adequate treatment, programs and staff for addiction treatment at a time when more drugs were being contaminated with fentanyl .
"I think when you're dealing with a lot of inmates who have such a long history of addiction, you should be providing a lot more treatment and programs in addition to opioid substitution treatment," Zinger said. reallocation of funding to provide these services.
"I do not see why the budget has remained the same and decreased in the past, as the number of incidents clearly increased," he said of overdoses that killed 41 people in 2010 and 2018.
Zinger said programs such as counseling are provided just before the release of offenders instead of throughout their incarceration.
"It's a problem when you have a very dependent population of detainees who have a lot of time and who are in sometimes difficult prison conditions. They will find ways to introduce drugs.
The Correctional Service said in a statement that 66% more prisoners had access to treatment in the past two years, but their numbers had increased 115% in the Pacific region, where the opioid crisis is worse.
He did not respond to requests for information on whether his budget would be increased to meet the additional processing request.
Kent Elson, an offender's lawyer at Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Ontario, said the Correctional Service did not take care of his client's addiction. He filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission last November.
Elson said that his 50-year-old client, who is serving a four-year prison sentence, was using methadone, but that the drug would have been blocked without explanation for five days when it was transferred from him. Another establishment in November 2017.
"He needed medical help and he was forced to withdraw from the cold turkey in a segregation cell soaked with excrement and cruel abuse by the guards. And it was so unbearable that he tried to commit suicide three times, "said Elson, of Toronto.
Although the Correctional Service's guidelines state that a physician is required to interview offenders before they are involuntarily reduced to the form of methadone or Suboxone, Elson stated that his client did not Had not been seen by a doctor.
"This whole experience was incredibly traumatic and he ended up suffering from PTSD," he said.
"The impact on him was terrible, but everyone wins if the prisoners receive the right treatment. Suffering from PTSD will not make them easier to reintegrate into society. "
The Correctional Service did not respond to a request for comment on the human rights complaint filed by Elson or another member of the Prison Legal Service. BC The group's complaint was filed in June 2018 on behalf of offenders who accused the Correctional Service of being discriminatory against them.
Nicole Kief, a lawyer in the group, said that one hundred inmates had expressed three main concerns: long waiting lists for treatment, discontinuation of Suboxone treatment after false accusations of misuse of treatment and the absence of addiction counseling.
"Among the people I spoke to, there was a real sense of urgency, people were calling me and saying," I worry about death, "a- she declared.
Camille Bains, Canadian Press
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