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HIV-positive inmates face prison within a prison
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| Jerry Sanford is one of the more than 200 HIV-positive inmates at the Limestone Correctional Facility | |
In this story:
December 22, 1998Web posted at: 12:06 a.m. EST (0506 GMT)
From Correspondent Aram Roston
CAPSHAW, Alabama (CNN) -- South Carolina has joined two other states, Alabama and Mississippi, in segregating prison inmates who are HIV positive from the rest of the prison population.
Some 228 HIV-infected men are segregated in such a prison within a prison at the Limestone Correctional Facility in northern Alabama.
"I accept death, personally I accept death," said prisoner Ralph Johnson, who is serving a 15-year sentence on a drug-related charge. "But the virus, just knowing I'm going to die from the virus -- it messes with me."
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Jerry Sanford, 36, is serving 25 years for an armed robbery. He was tested for HIV after he was arrested in 1993.
"They done some blood work on me, and it came back positive, HIV positive," said Sanford. "And that's when they quarantined me, put me in a single cell, got fed off paper plates."
"And I panicked because they told me I had six months to live," Sanford added.
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| Teddy bears provide comfort for some of the HIV-positive inmates | |
Teddy bears and T-cell counts
Some of the grown men in the unit cling to teddy bears for comfort. Other hardened felons compare medications and T-cell counts and talk about those who have died.
"You start to make friends with somebody, and they get sick, and they die on you, and it's real hard," Sanford explained.
Segregation here means these inmates don't get the job training other inmates do. There is no work release program. HIV-positive prisoners cannot participate in prison classes.
To get released on parole, HIV-positive inmates have to let their potential employers know their HIV status. They also have to tell whoever they will live with. Inmates say that makes it hard to find a job or a place to live.
Alabama and Mississippi have been segregating prisoners who are HIV positive since the 1980s.
"This is a very high risk population -- a population skewed more heavily than the general population -- as far as homosexuality is concerned and also the use of needles in this environment," explained Alabama Corrections Department Commissioner Joe Hopper.
But most experts, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization, say the measure is unnecessary. And they say that segregation can undercut the message that the virus cannot be spread through casual contact.
The American Civil Liberties Union and AIDS activists have sued in federal court on behalf of the inmates, saying the policy is discriminatory and driven by ignorance, not by genuine concerns over prevention.
"That's a very safe shield," said Randall Russell of the AIDS Task Force of Alabama. "It's a safe shield to say it's a prevention issue."
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| HIV-positive inmates are segregated from the general prison population | |
Miss three medication calls, get cut off
Prison officials say the program has protected the general population from infection. And they say it makes treating HIV prisoners easier as well.
The state pays for the latest, expensive AIDS cocktails. But critics complain they are not administered properly.
"There are prisoners and inmates up there today who are going without because they may have missed a medication call three times in a month and they are cut off," complained Russell.
The corrections officers who work in the unit get an extra 5 percent hazardous duty pay. And for some of them, the hazards seem to be emotional.
"The hardest thing for me to accept was that when an inmate is dying, they are put into a cell in the health-care unit. And a lot of times, they die by themselves," Sgt. Rene Mason, supervisor of the HIV unit, said.
"And I don't think any human being should leave this world by themselves," she said.