The South Is Different From The Rest Of Us…

Yesterday I wrote about how in Oklahoma a judge refused to grant a name change to a trans-person because of religious grounds. Today I am writing about how in in Alabama or South Carolina they discriminate against HIV/AIDS prisoners. They are the only two states in the U.S. that discriminated against HIV positive inmates. In Alabama they are required to wear white armbands and in South Carolina they are locked up in solitary confinement. According to an opinion piece in the Washington Post,

Alabama and South Carolina insist their policies are justified by the need to provide medical care to HIV-positive prisoners and prevent the transmission of the disease to other inmates. Neither excuse has any evidence to support it. Even if prisoners engage in sexual activity, modern antiretroviral therapy has radically reduced the odds that HIV transmission will occur at all. The vast majority of HIV patients, including those in Alabama’s prisons, will experience complete viral suppression, which reduces the risk that an individual will transmit HIV to nearly zero. Moreover, the policy does nothing to prevent the introduction of HIV through staff sexual misconduct. In a national study, about half the incidents of sexual aggression reported by former inmates were committed by staff members, not fellow prisoners. Alabama does not even test correctional officers for HIV.

Many HIV-positive prisoners in these states will spend more time behind bars than uninfected inmates with similar convictions, because they are not eligible for programs that promote early release and provide re-entry opportunities. HIV-positive prisoners also face barriers to accessing the treatment they need to manage their disease and keep it from progressing — treatment, which we now know, doubles as prevention. And by depriving HIV-positive prisoners of equal treatment, Alabama and South Carolina promote fear, prejudice, and even violence against them.

To deny an inmate proper medical treatment is wrong and inhuman. In some cases they’re there because minor offenses which become life sentences because of lack of proper medical treatment. In addition, it is the responsibility of prison officials to prevent rapes and assaults in prisons and by having these policies the prison officials are basically saying that they are not doing their jobs in preventing violence against prisoners.