Offenders With AIDS In Prisons

Prison Offenders with AIDS
Kaplan College

Abstract

Offenders living behind the walls of prison with AIDS is like the big pink elephant in prison, it is colossal but conspicuously avoided. In other words the disease's presence is apparent, but a great deal of ignorance is still pervasive. Offenders living with HIV are still unfairly treated, which they try keep their status concealed, and justifiably so due to the treatment of the guards or other inmates. Over 27,000 people entered NYC prisons in 2002 and approximately 28,000 were released. In addition, while the average prisoner serves less than five years, more than 50% of ex-prisoners commit crimes again within three years. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that men and women
Increasing staff-to-prisoner ratios, classifying and housing inmates carefully, decreasing overcrowding, and providing activities for inmates help to prevent transmission through non consensual risk behavior violence and or rape Preventing violence is the ongoing responsibility of prison staff. Effective staffing and education help prevent consensual but risky behavior sharing contaminated needles, and unsafe sex. For the purpose of HIV infection control in most U.S. prisons, the educational message is that no risk activity is safe, and exposure to semen and bloody body fluids should be avoided. Although the primary goal of HIV education in prisons is prevention, other critical objectives include promoting an understanding that engenders rational and humane treatment of affected inmates. Because of the dynamics of the correctional setting, information provided by people who are not prisoners, from general facts to specific medical advice, often is not trusted. Recommendations to begin antiviral therapy, for instance, have not been accepted as readily in prisons as in the general community. Therefore, HIV education in prisons must transmit information in a manner that
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