Prisoners' rights advocates want inmates to get priority treatment with the H1N1 flu vaccine, arguing that there's a greater risk of convicts spreading the virus and that vaccinating them first would help all Canadians.

The plea came amid a controversy in Quebec which saw the provincial health minister ordering a stop to a priority vaccination drive when he learned some inmates were getting faster treatment.

Canada's corrections service said Wednesday that convicts in federal institutions will be treated like everyone else — no better or worse.

But one prisoners' advocate said that with the close quarters and elevated levels of contact in prisons, inmates stand a better chance of getting and spreading the virus.

"My concern is that as the prison population grows, the infectious environment will grow as well," said Craig Jones, executive director of the John Howard Society of Canada.

Jillian Pranger, a spokeswoman for Correctional Service of Canada, said the prison system is following Health Canada guidelines and convicts are being vaccinated in the same manner as everybody else.

For example, that would mean convicts with pre-existing conditions like heart disease would have a priority in getting their flu shots.

"Vaccinations of federal inmates are happening because we're required under law to provide the basic essential health services but they're happening in accordance with the federal sequencing guidelines, meaning the priority groupings first," she said.

She said there has been one confirmed case of H1N1 in a Saskatchewan penitentiary and another in New Brunswick, as well as several suspected cases. Pranger said the prisons dealt with the cases and took preventive measures, like cancelling visiting hours.

While the prison system ensures convicts are vaccinated, staff are on their own.

"As far as staff goes, they fit in with the general public and we can recommend that they go and get vaccinated but it's not something that we implement," she said.

A spokesman for the union representing federal prison guards said it had no comment on the situation.

A spokeswoman for Quebec's Public Security Department, which oversees provincial detention centres, and officials with Ontario's corrections system, both said provincial health departments will determine when the vaccinations will be done.

Infectious environment

The controversy arose as a 42-year-old woman from the Montreal area died Tuesday after contracting the swine flu.

She was healthy but suffered from light asthma. Authorities say she is the third Quebecer to die from swine-flu complications since September.

Jones says he can understand outrage over convicts getting vaccinated before so-called "law-abiding citizens."

"But there's more at stake here than that. I would think that if I was the president of the guards' union I would want prisoners vaccinated pretty quickly because those infections are going to escape."

Jones said the prison environment itself makes it tough to introduce health measures that would be common in any office.

For instance, convicts have figured out a way to distill the alcohol in hand sanitizers so they can drink it, he said. As well, such things as door handles and bars are constantly handled.

"It's a perfect environment to transmit infectious disease," he said.

He pointed out that democratic countries realized they had to limit the size of their prison populations in the 19th century mainly because there is no way to control the spread of infectious diseases in jails.

A similar issue has also arisen south of the border.

White House officials have denied reports that terrorism detainees at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay prison will soon get the H1N1 vaccine.

An earlier news story that detainees and guards were slated to get the flu shots provoked outrage that alleged terrorists would get the vaccine before average Americans.