S.C. Prisons Brace for Lawsuit over Inmates with HIV

Despite a Wednesday deadline from the US Justice Department to change the practice, South Carolina says it will continue to segregate HIV-positive inmates. More than 400 inmates with HIV/AIDS are housed together at maximum security prisons in Columbia, including some who otherwise would not be in high-security facilities. Infected prisoners participate with other inmates in activities such as work, school, and faith-based programs, but they eat and sleep separately.

All state prisons "are safer from a public health perspective and a security perspective as a direct result of this program," Corrections Department attorney David Tatarsky wrote in August, responding to the Justice Department.

Alabama, with 250 HIV-positive inmates, is the only other state to segregate prisoners living with the disease. Both states were criticized in a report released earlier this year by Human Rights Watch and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). That report called for all inmates to be housed together and for prisoners to be provided condoms and syringes to curb the spread of HIV. HIV-positive inmates lack access to the same programs and jobs as other prisoners and are wrongly stigmatized, the report argued. They also are prevented from participating in work-release programs, rendering them unable to shorten their sentences through credits.

"That inevitably means that they serve longer sentences and are essentially being warehoused for no reason other than a medical condition," said Margaret Winter, associate director of ACLU's National Prison Project.

"Many inmates with HIV suffer disparate treatment from other similarly situated inmates without HIV," the Justice Department noted in a June letter to South Carolina officials, giving them three months to make changes.

Alabama officials said they have not been threatened with a lawsuit. Neither South Carolina prison officials nor Department of Justice officials were available for comment Tuesday.

The Friends of AIDS Foundation is dedicated to enhancing the quality of life for HIV positive individuals and empowering people to make healthy choices to prevent the spread of the HIV virus. To learn more about The Friends of AIDS Foundation, please visit: http://www.friendsofaids.org.


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