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The California Senate recently approved Assembly Member Rob
Bonta’s (D-Oakland) bill to provide condoms in adult prisons, even though the
law bans sex while imprisoned. The bill was meant to prevent transmission of
HIV, hepatitis C, and other diseases within prisons and other locations where
prisoners are kept during parole. The law, known as AB999, would require the
California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to provide condoms in
five prisons by 2015 and in all 33 adult prisons by 2020.
Democratic lawmakers viewed the bill as filling a public
safety need as well as a way of saving the state funds. State Sen. Rod Wright
(D-Los Angeles) explained that providing condoms was cheaper than treating the
disease after inmates became infected. Other lawmakers interpreted the bill as
encouraging inmates to break the law (sex in prison currently is a felony).
Former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill in 2007 in
which nonprofits and health organizations would have provided condoms to state
prisoners. He requested that the corrections department test condom
distribution in one prison. Inmates in California State Prison, Solano, could
get free condoms from a vending machine for a year, beginning November 2008. In
the 2011 report on this pilot program, health officials reported few problems
and recommended expansion. At present, inmates who qualify for overnight family
visits have limited permission to get condoms, as spouses and partners are
allowed to bring up to 10 for such visits.
