Inmate Medical Details Openly Displayed

An inmate at a federal penitentiary complained that the Correctional Service of Canada had contravened the Privacy Act by openly posting details of medical appointments at the institution. He said his name, appointment time and partial standard offender number had been disclosed at least three times to the general penitentiary population.

The inmate also said that names, medical appointment times, complete offender numbers and other medical information were similarly disclosed for other inmates on several occasions.

The Correctional Service of Canada acknowledged that the Privacy Act had been breached by the postings and said it would notify each inmate of medical appointments rather than post a list.

However, penitentiary officials did not accept our recommendation that only partial offender numbers be used on the lists which employees use for the individual notification.

We upheld the complaint as well founded.