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| Jackson joins inmates in getting AIDS test |
| By Chicago Sun-Times |
| Published: 08/20/2001 |
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Cook County, Ill., Jail inmate Jabari Veals doesn't fear the murderers, the armed robbers and other criminals behind bars with him. Instead, the 27-year-old father of six children fears the silent killer that's locked up with him and other convicts: AIDS. He and several hundred other inmates at the jail recently joined the Rev. Jesse Jackson and about 30 ministers in taking an AIDS test, helping to highlight the need for AIDS testing of prisoners. The mass testing in a gymnasium in a medium-security section of the jail was orchestrated by Jackson's Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to kick off its annual convention. The four-day convention centers on the AIDS crisis in the African-American community, the leading cause of death among African Americans 25 to 44, Jackson said. The rate of confirmed AIDS cases in state and federal prisons was five times higher than in the U.S. population, Jackson said, citing a 1999 Bureau of Justice Statistics report. Many inmates are raped by other inmates, engage in unprotected sex for drugs or engage in other behaviors that put them at risk of contracting the virus behind bars. Many share contaminated needles, contract the virus and then spread it to their wives or girlfriends once they are released, Jackson said. |
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