|
|
| Letter to the Editor |
| By Margaret Winter |
| Published: 11/26/2001 |
|
To the editor: This is a comment on Keith L. Martin's excellent article on 'Living With HIV in Corrections.' A spokesman for the Alabama DOC (ADOC) justifies HIV segregation on the ground that housing HIV-positive inmates together makes medical treatment easier. That might be a reason for separate housing, but not for excluding HIV-positive prisoners from vocational and educational programs. In fact, Mississippi has retained separate housing while integrating programs. Alabama could do the same. Also according to the ADOC spokesman, inmates with HIV prefer to be segregated because they fear being victimized or preyed upon by other inmates. That is a legitimate concern. The Mississippi DOC successfully addressed this concern before it integrated the programs, by requiring all inmates and all correctional staff to attend an intensive course of HIV education. Mississippi's experience over the past few months has proved that HIV education does indeed dispel prejudices, irrational fears, and hostility, and replaces them with understanding and compassion. [The article also quotes] ADOC's claims about HIV transmission among state prisoners. It should be noted that despite the ADOC's claims, there is, in fact, no reliable evidence that the rate of HIV transmission in Alabama prisons is lower than the rate in any other prison system. To determine the rate of HIV transmission occurring within a prison system, a statistically meaningful sample of initially HIV-negative prisoners in the system would have to be periodically retested over a specific period of time (e.g., one year) to find out how many converted from HIV-negative to HIV-positive status while in custody. According to the Corrections and Substance Abuse Unit at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), no study of this kind has been published, and CDC is unaware of any such study having been conducted in Alabama. In the absence of such research, the rates of HIV transmission are simply unknown and there is no legitimate basis for believing that the transmission rates in Alabama are lower than in any other prison system. Alabama's segregation strategy is based on the faulty premise that all prisoners with HIV are identified through HIV testing when they enter the prison system. Entry testing cannot, however, be counted on to identify every person with HIV. The standard HIV testing sequence gives accurate results only for people beyond the six-month 'window period' immediately following infection. For this reason, it is likely that there are unidentified HIV- positive inmates in Alabama's prisons. ADOC's segregation policy may actually increase the risk of HIV transmission by giving general population prisoners a false sense of security and encouraging the mistaken belief that they can engage in high-risk activity without fear of either contracting or transmitting the virus. ADOC's claim that few if any prisoners contract HIV in Alabama prisons is based on their policy of testing prisoners within one month before their release, as required by State law. But prisoners currently serving long terms who contract HIV in prison would not be identified for years, since ADOC retests only when an inmate exits the system, and symptoms may not develop for a decade after infection. Further, an inmate who has contracted HIV in prison may test negative in an exit test because he or she is still within the window period after infection, before the development of antibodies. In addition, an inmate may be released at the end of his or her sentence before completion of the standard testing sequence (an ELISA, followed if positive by a second ELISA, followed if positive by a Western Blot test). ADOC cannot require completion of the testing sequence after the inmate is discharged, and it provides the inmate no assistance in completing the testing sequence after discharge. ADOC has conceded that some inmates 'slip through the net' of exit-testing altogether, and that it does not know how many do so. Margaret Winter Associate Director The National Prison Project of the ACLU |
advertise
|
privacy policy
|
add URL
|
about us
|
terms/disclaimer
|
contact us
|
join our team
|
help
Comments:
No comments have been posted for this article.
Login to let us know what you think