ID: HR19-647

Presenting author: Naoual Laaroussi

Presenting author biography:

Naoual Laaroussi has been working in the community for 5 years, both in community centers and advocacy groups. She is in charge of the prison records and the implications of drug users, as well as the production of some harm reduction tools at AQPSUD.

Workshop - Discussion: Prevention and Advocacy in Prisons

Naoual Laaroussi

Many of us work with inmates or produce harm reduction materials for correctional facilities. That is why it is essential to understand the needs of inmates and the realities of incarceration, as well as the laws and specificities that frame these institutions in order to defend their rights, but also to give them access to harm reduction and health promotion material.

We therefore propose a workshop on good practices that we have developed over time at AQPSUD (Quebec Association for the Promotion of the Health of Drug Users) and with the magazine L'Injecteur (Magazine by and for people who use drugs) about the relationship with detainees, their advocacy and how we involve them directly in our projects / tools and leave them an expert place. Whether through artistic competitions or concrete harm reduction experiences in prison. The voice of users is at the center of our actions and our productions! We also offer a time for discussion and exchange on the different realities in detention facilities related to harm reduction and drug use, as well as ways to get around the bureaucratic pitfalls and make advocacy directly with detainees. In order to push individual cases towards collective actions for more social justice. We will take as an example the case of access to Naloxone when leaving prison in Quebec and Naloxone inside prisons and the complaint process that we started with the CDPDJ (Commission on Human Rights and Youth Rights of Quebec) concerning access to injection equipment in detention facilities.