'Grave risk:' Advocates say inmates should get speedy access to COVID-19 vaccine

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Martha Paynter, a registered nurse in Halifax who provides reproductive care to inmates, said hygiene and ventilation in correctional institutions are issues at the best of times.

There is also high turnover in remand centres and staff are constantly coming and going, she added.

Inmates are ‘living in this incredibly restrictive experience, but also facing very grave risk of illness transmission,’ said Paynter, a doctoral candidate at Dalhousie University.

Inmates 50 and older account for one-quarter of the federal prison population. Advocates note people age faster behind bars and are in poorer health than the general public.

‘Of course this population should have very quick access to the vaccines,’ said Paynter, who added that some might not trust the shots due to bad experiences with health care behind bars.

She said the bigger issue is why there are so many people incarcerated in the first place.

‘What are we choosing to police? What are we choosing to criminalize?’

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