Memories of vomiting, diarrhea and unrelenting stomach pain as he withdrew from opioids in prison had Rob MacDonald repeatedly asking for addiction treatment before he left a maximum-security facility but despite dozens of formal complaints, he says he didn't get any help.
"I was thinking, 'Wow, I can't believe I'm going out onto the street with this addiction,"' MacDonald said recently a week after being released on supervision from the Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B., his fourth facility in over a decade behind bars.
He said he complained to the warden and then appealed to the commissioner of the Correctional Service of Canada. One of his complaints to the commissioner was upheld but he said he was placed on a wait list because there was a limit on the number of inmates receiving treatment. "I think when you're dealing with a large inmate population that has such a long history of substance abuse you should be providing an awful lot more treatment and programming in addition to opioid substitution therapy," said Zinger, who called for the reallocation of funding to provide those services.
"That's a problem when you have a highly addicted inmate population that has a lot of time on their hands and are in sometimes difficult conditions of confinement. They will find ways to bring in drugs." Kent Elson, a lawyer for an offender at Joyceville Institution in Kingston, Ont., said the Correctional Service did not accommodate his client's disability of addiction so he filed a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission last November.
While Correctional Service guidelines state a doctor is required to interview offenders before they are involuntarily tapered or cut off from methadone or Suboxone, Elson said his client was not seen by a physician."The impact on him was terrible but everybody wins if prisoners get the right treatment. Suffering from PTSD is not going to make them easier to integrate back into society."
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ex-Whitecaps star Alphonso Davies scores his first goal for Bayern Munich in Bundesliga routThe 18-year-old Davies became the first Canadian goal-scorer for Bayern and first Canadian to get a goal in Germany’s top league since Marcel de Jong in 2013
Read more »
Ex-Priest, Accused Of Abusing Dozens Of Boys, Found Shot To Death In HomeFormer priest accused of sexually abusing dozens of young boys found dead in his home: U.S. authorities
Read more »
U.S. SEC sues VW, ex-CEO over alleged emissions fraud on investorsU.S. SEC sues VW, ex-CEO over alleged emissions fraud on investors GlobeBusiness
Read more »
Ex-officer says she had sex while child was dying in hot carA former Mississippi Gulf Coast police officer told a judge Monday that she had sex with her supervisor and then fell asleep while her 3-year-old daughter was dying inside an overheated patrol car.
Read more »
FBI was investigating Trump's ex-fixer Michael Cohen long before raid, records showInquiry into Michael Cohen had been going on since July 2017 — far longer than had previously been known
Read more »
Report: Ravens sign Ex-Seahawks S Thomas - TSN.caEarl Thomas is heading to Charm City. ESPN's Adam Schefter reports the former Legion of Boom member has signed a four-year, $55 million deal with the Baltimore Ravens.
Read more »
Ex-students attack school in Brazil, 8 deadTwo young men wearing hoods and carrying guns, knives and crossbows opened fire at a school in southern Brazil on Wednesday, killing eight people before taking their own lives, authorities said.
Read more »
Who is Soldier F? Ex-paratrooper faces 1972 murder charges over Northern Ireland’s Bloody Sunday massacreThe anonymous soldier is charged with two counts of murder and four of attempted murder over the infamous killings
Read more »
Bring back Gerry Butts - Macleans.caAndrew MacDougall: Why did the PM's ex-principal secretary go, while others are allowed to stay? Either nobody did anything wrong, or everybody did.
Read more »