Prison commissioner supports change in HIV/AIDS segregation policy
Sept. 22, 2003
Alabama’s head of corrections has endorsed recommendations that would end a nearly 20-year-old segregation policy that denies prisoners with HIV/AIDS equal access to program opportunities behind bars, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today.
Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU’s National Prison Project and a longtime advocate for reform of Alabama’s policy, called Commissioner Donal Campbell’s endorsement an important milestone.
"Since the 1980s, Alabama’s HIV segregation policy has shut out hundreds of men and women from rehabilitative programming based on irrational fears about AIDS and HIV," Winter said. “Gov. Riley should endorse his commission’s recommendation and end this expensive one-of-a-kind policy."
Corrections Commissioner Campbell’s support for the policy change was publicly expressed in a report issued by the Governor’s HIV Commission for Children, Youth and Adults and delivered to Alabama Gov. Bob Riley on Tuesday.
The report states, "The exclusion of otherwise eligible HIV-positive offenders from boot camp, work release, release under intensive supervision, and other community-based alternatives comes with a heavy price tag. … [T]he evidence is overwhelming that the exclusion of prisoners from educational, vocational, rehabilitative, or community-based corrections programs, simply on the basis of HIV status, has no public health or correctional justification."
In May, members of the HIV Commission and officials from the National Prison Project met with Commissioner Campbell to discuss the segregation policy and a April 2003 report by Dr. Rachel Maddow that discovered a potential savings of $400,000 if HIV-positive prisoners were permitted to participate in out-of-prison programs like community corrections. Today’s HIV Commission report is a product of that meeting.
"Commissioner Campbell is acutely aware of the financial crisis facing Alabama and the Department of Corrections in particular, and he also believes prisoners with HIV and AIDS should have the same opportunities to participate in departmental programs as other prisoners, said Jackie Walker, AIDS and Hepatitis Information coordinator with the National Prison Project. "His approach will save money, rehabilitate prisoners and lead to reduced rates of recidivism."
Alabama prisoners with HIV/AIDS are forbidden by the Alabama Department of Corrections from participating with other prisoners in any DOC programs. The policy applies both to in-prison programs, such as education, jobs, vocational training and religious services, and to community corrections. As a result, prisoners with HIV/AIDS have few program options and serve longer sentences than prisoners in the general population convicted of similar offenses. No other state completely segregates HIV-positive prisoners in this way.
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