Over the last 22 years Anne Marie has worked on issues related to people in prison in Canada. Her work has been driven from a harm reduction and anti-oppression framework and has had a strong focus on women, street involved people and people living with HIV & HCV. Anne Marie has been working for PASAN (Prisoners’ HIV/AIDS Support Action Network), http://www.pasan.org/, for 19 years and has been their Executive Director for over 11 years. Anne Marie has presented to the Canadian Human Rights Commission on Women in Prison, at workshops and forums on Criminalization of HIV Non-Discloser and on CBC Radio on Harm Reduction and HIV/AIDS. Anne Marie has a Masters Degree in Social Work and has also written many articles and opinion pieces on HIV/AIDS and prisons. She is the co-author of the study "Unlocking Our Futures: A National Study on Women, prisons, HIV and Hepatitis C (2003) and has worked on preserving the human rights of people in prison for many years. Anne Marie has serviced on the Board of Directors for HALCO (HIV/AIDS Legal Clinic of Ontario) and of APAA (Africans in Partnership Against AIDS). More here: http://aidsorganizing.ca/

1. Where Do We Go From
Here ?
Linking Community
Organizing, People Living
with HIV and the Prison
Industrial Complex
By: Anne Marie DiCenso
PASAN Executive Director
Oct. 17, 2014

2. Overview of Prison Organizing
 In 1991 a network of Activists, AIDS Action
Now Members, Organizations & People
living with HIV/AIDS came together to
discuss HIV & prisons.
 This group came up with 40
recommendations for change in decreasing
HIV transmission the prison system
 Later the group called themselves PASAN

3. Overview Continued...
 The first PASAN brief outlined a
comprehensive strategy for HIV
prevention, support and advocacy.
 The brief was presented to the
community, The Ministries of Corrections
and Health.
 PASAN was established as an activist
/prisoner’s health rights network.

4. The History of PASAN
 PASAN’s funding started in 1993 with
funding from the City of Toronto AIDS
Grants and The Ministry of Health and
Long Term Care – the AIDS Bureau
One staff member was assigned the task of
implementing the Brief, providing
education & support services to HIV
positive people in prison for all of
Ontario ...

5. History Continued...
 ... Needless to say this was an impossible
task.
 By 1997 PASAN grew into a collective with
5 staff and a mandate to cover our three
main goals – prevention, support &
advocacy. We added HCV as part of our
cause at this time as well.

6. History Continued...
 Today PASAN has 14 staff. Mandate has changed a
little to ensure HCV is encompassed through out.
 People in prison include HCV positive, HIV
positive, drug users, homeless and people with
Mental health – complex issues.
 People in prison are: LGBTQ, from the ACB
communities, Indigenous people etc.

7. Key issues prisoners have faced
 Harm reduction
Access to meds
 Care that is comparable to that available
in the community.

8. What's changed?
 Prisoners still do not have access to most
Harm Reduction measures.
Access to treatment for HIV & HCV still
limited.
 Litigation may be the only option for
some measures.

9. Key Issues Facing PASAN
As a hybrid organization – we are service
providers and activists which results in...
 Less access to funding
 Less access to community supports
Difficulty gaining credibility

10. Where we go from here?
We work better together
We need to build solidarity between
populations.
We need to remember that we are all
fighting HIV/HCV
 Back to our roots as AIDS Activists?

11. Conclusion
 Prison industrial complex
 Statistics
 Populations
 Forgetting we were activists first.
 Bridging communities to work together –
a step beyond partnership

12. THANK YOU!
annemarie@pasan.org
416-920-9567
(collect calls accepted)
www.pasan.org