South Carolina is one of two states that have mandatory HIV testing for prisoners and segregates prisoners who have the virus into special dorms, according to a critical report released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union and Human Rights Watch.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
In response, the S.C. Department of Corrections defended the practice, saying its intent is to prevent the disease’s spread inside prison walls and to provide the best possible health care for inmates.
“Our system provides quality health care and treatment to HIV-positive inmates at the lowest possible cost, and it protects the public, our staff and inmates from the spread of the disease,” Josh Gelinas, the Corrections Department spokesman, wrote in an e-mailed response to the report. “We can’t think of any reason to change such a successful system.”home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
Alabama is the only other state that has mandatory testing and separate housing, the 45-page ACLU report said. The ACLU called on both states to end the practice and find other ways to control the spread of the disease inside prisons.
“Rather than trying to correct misperceptions and prejudices about HIV, they’re adding to it,” said Victoria Middleton, executive director of the ACLU’s South Carolina office.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
In South Carolina, 420 men and women with HIV were in prison as of Jan. 1, according to the Corrections Department. The men are housed in two dorms at Broad River Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison along Broad River Road in Columbia. HIV-positive women are imprisoned in a dorm at Camile Griffin Graham Correctional Institution, also on Broad River Road.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
South Carolina began testing all new prisoners for HIV and housing them in separate dorms in 1998.
Inmates that year sued the Corrections Department over the practice, but a federal appeals court ruled in favor of the institution’s policy.
Since then, S.C. prisons have had only one documented case of the disease being transmitted between inmates. That happened in 2009, Gelinas said.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
The ACLU said prison systems in other states have found ways to prevent the spread of the disease, such as providing condoms to inmates and by making available disinfectants for needles.
Wednesday’s report includes personal accounts of discrimination by unnamed S.C. inmates. Several inmates said they were segregated as soon as their diagnosis was given, allowing other inmates to know about it. As a result, one inmate said word of her diagnosis got back to her home before she had a chance to tell friends and family members.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
“They’re stigmatized,” Middleton said. “Other prisoners know who they are.”
The ACLU said the practice denies HIV-positive prisoners access to rehabilitation programs available to other inmates. For example, HIV-positive inmates in South Carolina cannot participate in work-release programs, which allow inmates to hold paying jobs outside the prison gates.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
Typically, prisoners are allowed to participate in these programs based on factors such as length of sentence and the crime committed, Middleton said. But these prisoners are barred “strictly because of their health status.”
To be in a work-release program, an inmate must be housed in a minimum security prison, Gelinas said. But HIV-positive prisoners are housed at a maximum security facility, and there is no system in place to allow them to participate in work release, he said.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
The ACLU report said HIV-prisoners at S.C. prisons are forced to eat and worship apart from other inmates and are not allowed to sign up for other in-house work programs.
However, Gelinas said those accusations were incorrect.
HIV-positive prisoners eat separately from other inmates because all prisoners eat meals in the dorms where they are housed, Gelinas said.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
They are allowed to worship with other prisoners, and they can participate in programs on the Broad River campus such as prison industries programs that make license plates, metal office furniture and signs, Gelinas said.
HIV-positive prisoners are not allowed to work in dining halls, he said.home hiv test, hiv self test, home hiv kit
