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AIDS FOCUS
Living With AIDS
Mandatory testing programs for state
prisoners have been established by statute in
many slates. These mandatory testing laws
require that all prisoners upon admission to,
and prior to release from, prison be tested.
For prisoners, testing means another invasion,
another opportunity for rights to be denied
and human dignity ignored.
The hysteria about AIDS is magnified in
prison, coupled with commonly-held myths
about its transmission, a prisoner who is
known as "having AIDS" is likely to
experience discrimination and possible
violence or other detrimental effects.
Prior to testing, prisoners receive little
information from prison staff members.
Often times the only information available is
rumor which has circulated through the prison
grapevine. Not only arc prisoners tested
involuntarily, they do not understand the test
that is being performed or what the results
mean. Due to the high error rate of the
antibodies test, many prisoners have false
negative or positive results which causes the
prisoners extreme mental anguish.
In most institutions, there is no mental
health care or support group available to help
HIV-infected prisoners cope with their test
results or their segregation in an AIDS unit
Despite the fact that medical and public health
officials agree that the best way to prevent
transmission of AIDS is by providing
extensive counselling and education on safe
sex and safe needle use for intravenous-drug
use and tattooing, most prisons do not provide
such programs.
Once a prisoner is diagnosed as HIV
positive, he or she is immediately moved
from general population and placed in a
special segregated unit called the "AIDS
unit," where they will remain for the duration
of their imprisonment Prisoners who are
confined in HIV positive segregation units
are treated as lepers. They are not allowed to
leave their units except when they must go to
the infirmary to get medical attention.
The normal visitation rules do not apply to
these prisoners. In some cases all visitation is
terminated, in other cases the number and
length of visits is reduced. Prisoners are
denied the rights and amenities of general
population and instead are treated like they
are under punitive segregation.
Upon diagnosis, prisoners lose their
current custody status and are classified as
medium security, which means that they can
no longer participate in work release,
restitution programs or receive furlough.
As a result of this segregation, the prison
grapevine begins to carry the news that
someone is an "AIDS victim" or "AIDS
carrier". The entire prison community-which
includes other prisoners, guards, prison staff
and visitors from the outside-knows the
prisoners medical condition. The separation
and labeling make it easy for the name of a
prisoner who is believed to have AIDS to be
leaked to the outside world.
AIDS patients are frequently placed in the
same room or ward with prisoners who have
infectious diseases. In some facilities,
medical staff refuses to treat or touch
seropositive prisoners. Despite the fact that
there are established guidelines for health
workers to follow to protect themselves,
reports indicate that prison staff are refusing
to treat ailments in which there is virtually no
risk of transmission. It is reported that a
woman who had been assigned to an AIDS
unit in an Alabama prison hemorrhaged for
over a period of three nursing shifts before a
nurse would finally agree to see her.
Conditions such as the one described
above prompted lawyers for the ACLU
National Prison Project and Southern
Prisoners' Defense Committee to file suit last
spring challenging the conditions of
confinement for prisoners diagnosed as HIV
positive in Alabama's prison system.
Five prisoners, one female, brought the suit
on behalf of 9,700 prisoners confined in the
Alabama prison system. The five prisoners
are segregated in various AIDS units
throughout the system. Under Alabama law,
all state prisoners must be tested for the HIV
antibodies at the time they arc admitted into
the system, and 30 days before they are
released from the system. The prisoners
assert numerous violations of their
constitutional rights have occurred, and
contend that prisoners who test positive are
subjected to a succession of harmful,
humiliating, unlawful practices and
conditions.
In Alabama, once prisoners have tested
positive they are immediately moved to one
of the segregated units. They cannot receive
vocational or educational training, or
participate in work release, and cannot earn
good time. They receive no emotional
support or counseling, and their test results are
not kept confidential. At one time, women
who tested positive were required to wear
face masks, rubber gloves and special
footwear. At the time of the law suit, the
litigants were required to wear masks at all
times outside the segregation unit, including
when they needed medical consultation and
visitation. Prisoners in the AIDS segregation
units receive no meaningful access to courts
and cannot use the law library. Food is often
cold and unedible.
The suit is the first system-wide class
action suit to challenge mandatory testing and
segregation of prisoners testing positive to the
HIV virus. The suit is viewed as a nationwide
test case and Alabama prisoners are asking
the court to declare Alabama's testing and
segregation policies illegal and prevent the
Department of Corrections from enforcing
them.
-Sandra Barnhill
Sandra Barnhill is founder and director of Aid to
Imprisoned Mothers, Inc. (AIM), a non-profit
advocacy organization which assists inmate
mothers and their children. Prior to starling,
Sandra was staff attorney with Southern
Prisoners Defense Committee.
"Living With AIDS" is written by those
personally effected by the AIDS crisis. PWAs,
PWARCs, HIV-pos'uive persons, their family and
loved ones, health care professionals, teachers,
attorneys, and anyone in the community who has
been touched by this epidemic are urged to
submit to "Living With AIDS" by writing
Southern Voice, P.O. Box 54719, Atlanta, GA
30308. The HIV status of any author of this
column, unless specifically stated by the author,
should not be assumed.
Correction
A submission to Living With AIDS
that appeared in the October 13th issue of
Southern Voice entitled "I Hope You're
Being Careful," was mis-interpreted by
some of our readers, who assumed that
the author, Nancy Oswall, was identifying
herself as a person with AIDS. Ms.
Oswall has stated to Southern Voice that
she is HIV-negative. We regret any
problems this may have caused her.
Submissions to Living With AIDS are
from people who have been affected by
the AIDS epidemic, not all of whom are
people with AIDS.
Updates
Kitty Dukakis
Reaffirms Campaign’s
Commitment
to AIDS Programs
Washington, D.C. - During several AIDS-
related briefings and public appearances last
month, potential first lady Kitty Dukakis
reiterated her husband Michael's commitment
to sound and effective federal AIDS policies.
In early September, Dukakis began her
initiative by participating in an educational
AIDS briefing in San Francisco with doctors,
health professionals, and people with AIDS
(PWAs). "Until the federal government
begins to focus on this epidemic, we will have
large numbers dying of AIDS," she stated
after the meeting, adding that mounting AIDS
death tolls are "unacceptable and morally
wrong."
Later she met with otganizers of San
Francisco's Project Open Hand which delivers
about 450 meals daily to PWAs in the San
Francisco area. She then lent a hand by
delivering boxed lunches and speaking with
PWAs. Project Open Hand's Martin Delaney
commented after her visit that "not only did
she understand the issues, she understands the
urgency of the issues," adding, "We've never
seen that in the Reagan-Bush administration."
That same afternoon Dukakis met near Los
Angeles with representatives of the
organization Mothers of AIDS Patients
(MAP), a national support group of families
and friends of PWAs. Co-founder Barbara
Cleaver, whose son died of AIDS in 1984 at
age 26, joined eight others in personalizing
the issue for Dukakis by sharing the pain,
sorrow and isolation family members of a
PWA feels. Following the emotional session,
Dukakis called it "intolerable that anyone else
in our society should [contract] AIDS because
of ignorance," referring to the Reagan-Bush
administration's failure to take a strong stand
for explicit, non-judgmental education
programs. Many public health experts have
stated these programs are the only effective
means presently available to combat the killer*
Her visibility in the AIDS community
continued during the last week of September
when Dukakis addressed the Second National
AIDS Conference in San Francisco. In her
address, Dukakis assured attendees that "if my
husband is elected President, you will have a
friend in the White House...an ally who will
provide leadership in the war on AIDS." She
went on to outline Governor Dukakis's broad
goals and strategies for stopping AIDS.
Included are an Executive Order and support
for federal legislation to prohibit
discrimination against HIV-infected
individuals, availability of nationwide
anonymous test sites, and a comprehensive
AIDS education effort beginning in primary
school.
At the end of each of her well-publicized
visits, Dukakis promised to discuss the
information and insights gained with her
husband.
Highlights of Dukakis AIDS Plan
Below is an outline of some of Democratic
Presidential candidate Michael Dukakis's
AIDS strategies as described by his wife Kitty
during her visits with PWAs, medical
professionals, volunteers and others involved
with AIDS. As President, Michael Dukakis
will:
• Issue an Executive Order and support
federal legislation to prohibit discrimination
against people with HIV infection;
• Encourage the development of AIDS
education programs beginning early in
primary school;
• Encourage the availability of resources for
nationwide anonymous testing sites;
• Advocate the centralized coordination and
funding for AIDS research;
• Work with the FDA to shorten the time it
takes to make new drugs and treatments
available;
• Assist communities to establish coordinated
networks of AIDS-related services;
• Support legislation to mandate universal
health care for all Americans.
Harvard Study
Shows Discrimination
Against PWAs
Boston-It came as no surprise to most
people, but a new study shows that
discrimination against people with AIDS and
people who test positive for the AIDS virus
continues to run rampant in the United States.
The study, conducted by Harvard's School
of Public Health, showed that those infected
with the virus face "discriminatory attitudes
and even outright hostilities from a substantial
number of Americans." Researchers
concluded that HIV positive people will face
a high risk of discrimination unless new laws
are created to protect them. President
Reagan's AIDS Commission urged the
president to enact anti-discrimination laws,
but Mr. Reagan has refused to do so.
-F.G.