ACLU And Human Rights Watch Report Calls on South
Carolina and Alabama
To Stop Segregating Prisoners With HIV
Conditions
In HIV Units Cruel, Inhuman And Degrading
Alabama and South Carolina should
immediately end their policies of segregating prisoners with HIV from the
rest of the population, Human Rights Watch and the American Civil Liberties
Union concluded in a report released last week. According to the report,
prisoners in designated HIV units in both states face stigma, harassment and
systemic discrimination that amount to inhuman and degrading treatment.
The 45-page report, “Sentenced to Stigma,” reveals that prisoners in the HIV
units are forced to wear armbands or other indicators of their HIV status,
are forced to eat and even worship separately and are denied equal
participation in prison jobs, programs and re-entry opportunities that
facilitate their successful transition back into society.
“There
is no medical or other justification for separating prisoners with HIV from
the rest of the prison population,” said Megan McLemore, health researcher at
Human Rights Watch. “Like past policies of racial segregation, segregating
prisoners with HIV is discriminatory, and the harm it causes extends well
beyond the person’s prison term.”
Last
month, after reviewing preliminary findings of the report, Mississippi
ended its longstanding policy of segregating prisoners with HIV, leaving South Carolina and Alabama
as the last states in the United
States to maintain such policies. South Carolina is also
the only state in the union to prohibit prisoners with HIV from participating
in work release programs. After
negotiation with the ACLU, Alabama
prison officials reversed the policy disallowing prisoners with HIV from
participation in work release.
However, the eligibility requirements applied to prisoners with HIV
excludes many of them from this important program without any legitimate
medical justification.
The
report highlights the mental suffering of prisoners forced to disclose their
HIV status. In many cases, other prisoners send the news back to these
prisoners’ home communities, resulting in anguished letters from family
members who had been unaware of the prisoner’s HIV status.
“Involuntary
public disclosure of anyone’s HIV status can be devastating,” said Margaret
Winter, Associate Director of the ACLU National Prison Project. “But the
consequences in the closed environment of a prison can be particularly severe
– especially if prison officials impose a segregation policy, which only
enflames prejudices against people with HIV.”
Alabama and South Carolina prison
officials contend that segregation is necessary to provide medical care and
to prevent HIV transmission. But there are other ways to accomplish these
goals without denying prisoners their rights, according to the report. The
other 48 states and the Federal Bureau of Prisons provide medical care for
prisoners with HIV without resorting to segregation.
“HIV
prevention can and should be managed with information and risk-reduction
programs – not with stigma and isolation,” said Winter.
Prisoners
with HIV segregated from the rest of the prison population are routinely
denied opportunities other prisoners have to shorten their prison stays and
assist their transition into society, the report finds. In Alabama, for example, prisoners with HIV
are ineligible for faith-based or honor dorms and for residential drug
treatment or pre-release programs that are linked to support groups in the
community.
In
South Carolina,
prisoners with HIV are ineligible for elite jobs that are earned through good
behavior and are looked upon favorably by the parole board. Solely because of
their HIV status, prisoners in South Carolina
with sentences as short as 90 days must serve their sentences at the maximum
security facility at Broad River, a more
violent, more expensive facility that also houses death row.
The
World Health organization, the National Commission on Correctional Health
Care and other experts agree there is no medical basis for segregating
prisoners with HIV within correctional facilities or for limiting access to
jobs, education or vocational programs available to others.
Nevertheless,
in Alabama and South Carolina, the report says, prisoners with HIV are barred
from working in the kitchen, a job that assists prisoners with employment
after they return to society and which, in South Carolina, earns extra “good
time” credits toward early release. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention says that there is no medical basis for precluding persons with
HIV from kitchen- or food-service-employment.
“Segregating
prisoners with HIV sends a message to other prisoners, to staff and even to
the outside community that discrimination is okay,” said McLemore.
“Segregation is also bad public policy when prisoners are denied
opportunities that will help them become productive citizens when they are
released.”
A
copy of the report is available online at: www.aclu.org/prisoners-rights/sentenced-stigma-segregation-hiv-positive-prisoners-alabama-and-south-carolina
Additional information about the ACLU National Prison
Project is available online at: www.aclu.org/prison
Additional information about Human Rights Watch
reporting on health and human rights is available online at: www.hrw.org/en/health
ACLU-AL in the News!
Unfounded
Fears: An “Alabama Voices” column,
written by Olivia Turner, on the plight of prisoners with HIV in Alabama. (Montgomery Advertiser, April 14, 2010)
National and International Press: In addition
to this report being covered by media outlets in Alabama and South Carolina,
the story was also covered by the New York Times, Reuters, UPI, the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, and other national and international blogs and new
sites.
Thank you for your continued support of civil liberties
in Alabama!
Olivia Turner
Executive
Director, ACLU of Alabama
207 Montgomery Street, Suite 910, Montgomery, Alabama 36104
T: 334-262-0304 | F: 334-269-5666 |
info@aclualabama.org
www.aclualabama.org
|