1. LIVING WITH HIV/AIDS IN PRISON
Prevention?
• Condoms (considered
contraband)
• Educating inmates
• Nutrition
• Programs
• Improvement of prison
conditions
More than 2,000,000
people are incarcerated
prisons around the US…
1.4% have HIV or AIDS
HIV? According to the Mayo Clinic, HIV,
or human immunodeficiency virus, is a
sexually transmitted infection. It can also
be spread by contact with infected blood
or from mother to child during pregnancy,
childbirth or breast-feeding. It can take
years before HIV weakens your immune
system to the point that you get AIDS
(2014).
AIDS? AIDS, or acquired immunodeficiency
syndrome, is a chronic, potentially life-
threatening condition caused by the human
immunodeficiency virus (HIV). By damaging
your immune system, HIV interferes with your
body's ability to fight the organisms that cause
disease (Mayo Clinic, 2014).
Cure? Currently there is no cure for
HIV/AIDS, but there are medications that
can dramatically slow down disease’s
progression. These drugs have reduced
AIDS deaths in many developed nations,
but HIV continues to decimate
populations in Africa, Haiti and parts of
Asia (Mayo Clinic 2014).
Poor prison conditions such as overcrowding, a shortage of clean
water, inadequate natural lighting and ventilation and poor facilities for
personal hygiene also worsen the situation for those who are suffering
from any illness. The use of contaminated injecting equipment when
using drugs is one of the primary routes of HIV transmission in
prisons. possessing a needle is often a punishable offence (UNAIDS
1997) therefore, many people just share equipment that has not been
sterilized between uses. By sharing needles for homemade tattoos
between drug-using inmates are basically asking for HIV/AIDS. In prisons,
the atmosphere is usually one of violence and fear while including sexual
tensions. The consumption of drugs or in sex releases the inmates from
these tensions, and from the boredom of prison life (1997).
PRISONS ARE A
HIGH-RISK
BREEDING
GROUND FOR HIV
TRANSMISSION
“This is a global prison crisis.”
Although reliable
figures are hard to
come by, the
prevalence of HIV in
prisons is generally
much higher than in a
country's wider
population.
While about 10 million people are
incarcerated every year, some 30
million enter and leave prisons
annually…making it a public health
problem for society.
(Photo: Ca. Dep’t. of Corrections)Jail overcrowding for L.A.City Beat
by Jordan Crane
By: Catherine Tilman
Advisor: Sheldon Goodrum
Causes?
• Unprotected sex
• Rape
• Sharing needles
(drugs and tattooing)
• Vulnerability
• Lack of education
• Inconsistent
medication
Only protective behavior will protect
you from HIV.
Since the 1980s, AIDS was the second leading cause of death
among state prisoners in the United States and was identified as the
leading cause of death in some correctional systems (Maruschak
2002). Throughout the past 20 years, HIV/AIDS has increased and
decreased many times in U.S. inmates (2002). Yet, the number of
confirmed AIDS cases among prisoners has remained about four
times higher than the U.S. general population (2002).