|
The New York Times
Fighting AIDS Behind
Bars
EDITORIAL,
nytimes.com on the Web. July 18, 2007
Prison inmates have unprotected sex,
despite laws forbidding it and denial by prison officials, which makes prisons
prime settings for the spread of deadly blood-borne viruses like hepatitis C and
H.I.V. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention underscored this
point last year when it urged states without condom-distribution programs to
think about starting them as a way of preventing the spread of H.I.V. behind
bars. By protecting the inmates, the states would also protect the
all-too-vulnerable wives and lovers to whom they inevitably return when their
sentences are completed.
The California State Legislature tried to take the C.D.C.’s advice last year,
passing a landmark bill that would have allowed public health agencies to enter
prisons and distribute condoms to inmates who wanted them. The bill had
the overwhelming support of the voting public. But Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger vetoed it, using the familiar know-nothing excuse that handing
out condoms would justify illegal sexual activity. The experience of
jurisdictions that allow condoms does not support this view.
At the same time, public health officials now recognize that condom-distribution
programs are integral to any meaningful AIDS prevention program. These
programs are already running in prisons in Canada and in much of the European
Union and in jails in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia
and Washington.
The California Legislature has taken up the condom bill again, this time
spearheaded by Assemblyman Sandré Swanson, Democrat of Oakland. The bill
deserves to pass the Legislature, just as it did last year. But this time,
Governor Schwarzenegger should sign the bill. It would give California’s
public health community a powerful tool to fight the spread of a deadly disease.
|
