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| Court rules in prison HIV case |
| By Hartford Courant |
| Published: 05/10/2004 |
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The Connecticut Supreme Court last Monday ruled that human immunodeficiency virus - HIV - is an occupational disease for prison officers who serve on the department's emergency response unit, but did not extend that benefit to line officers who routinely break up fights and risk exposure to the virus through contact with infected inmates. Chief Justice William J. Sullivan, who joined the 5-2 majority, wrote a separate opinion in which he stated that no distinction should be made between emergency response unit members and those officers regularly assigned to the housing units. "The fact that the risk was increased for special response unit members does not mean, however, that the risk was not sufficiently high to constitute an occupational disease for correction officers who were not part of the special response unit," Sullivan wrote. The ruling means the widow and two children of deceased prison officer "John Doe" can renew their efforts to secure worker's compensation benefits. John Doe was hired as a correction officer in 1986, and volunteered for the specially trained emergency response unit a year later. While working at the Bridgeport Correctional Institution he frequently broke up fights, including several that exposed him to a significant amount of blood. He also responded to a medical emergency in which he had to put pressure on an inmate's open wound, and received a puncture wound during a cell shakedown, when his hand struck a razor blade. He left the department in 1991, was diagnosed as HIV-positive the following year and died in March 1993. His twins were 5 years old at the time. The worker's compensation commission first barred his widow's claim, saying it was filed more than a year after her husband's last day of work. She then claimed his death was the result of an occupational disease, and therefore fell within the three-year window for filing claims. The commission denied that claim, and the widow appealed. The court's majority cited testimony that the HIV infection rate in the prison population is 1 in 20, in contrast to an incidence rate of 1 in 1,500 in the non-prison population. Justices Christine S. Vertefeuille and Peter T. Zarella dissented, saying there was no evidence that correction officers are at increased risk of contracting HIV. |
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