HIV in Prisons and Jails

It has been found that prevalence of HIV in prisons and jails is five times more than that of the general population. In USA, most of prisoners are blacks. The female prisoners are more affected by HIV that their male counterparts. In most of the cases, an inmate is tested for HIV during entry into a jail or during the custody period. The inmate, if tested HIV positive goes through the following:

• He may not be able to conceal his HIV positive status. People around will come to know about it as the community is so small.
• The HIV positive inmate may be deprived from various activities and assignments in the jail
• An HIV positive inmate gets a separate place to stay to ensure that a normal inmate does not contract the deadly disease.

However, in some jails many positive provisions are made for HIV positive inmates:

• They are given regular antiretroviral treatments
• Peer education is given in certain cases, so that others do not degrade the person suffering from HIV in prison and jails.

Successful treatments of HIV in prisons and jails depends on some factors:

• Mental health problems of the prisoner
• Previous treatment history
• The state of viral load at that given time
• Term of imprisonment
• Other habits of the inmates like drug abuse
• Behavior and nature of the inmate
• Availability of food and state of mind of the inmate.
• Resistance and biological response to the medication. In the jail, the poor quality of food often makes the body less receptive to medication

As said earlier, the number of female inmates affected with HIV are much more in number than the male inmates. More than 10% of the inmates in every state and federal jails are females. Of them, 61% acquired the disease through drug injection, which is only 39% for their male counterparts.

The death rate of HIV in prisons and jails are also very high and unfortunate. The lack of proper treatment and proper social and moral support plays a big role in further degenerating the body and mind of the patients. This takes a toll on their mental wellbeing and the urge of living a normal healthy life. In 2003, about 268 inmates died of HIV in prisons and jails in USA. This rate was found to be double than that of the general population of the USA. In the last few years, many efforts were taken to reduce the number of HIV deaths in jails. The efforts taken were partly successful. The death rate reduced to a whopping 70% in the jails that kept male inmate whereas there was only 40% reduction in jails having female inmates.

USA was the first nation to identify the presence of HIV in prisons and jails, and it was one of the first nations to take serious actions in favor of the prisoners living with HIV. The other nations who gradually followed the footsteps of USA are Brazil, South Africa, Nigeria, Russia, Spain, France and Netherlands. The listed Sub Saharan nations had no other options but to take actions to avoid HIV propagation by the end of the last decade, while the other nations had the required infrastructure and the zeal to abort its growth.