March 19, 2008

HIV-Positive Inmates Segregated at Alabama Prison

Despite corrections officials’ assurances that two Alabama prisons—Limestone Correctional Facility and Tutwiler prison—would lift restrictions on the activities of HIV-positive inmates, more than 200 men in Limestone’s HIV unit are being kept apart from other inmates, the Associated Press (AP)/Montgomery Advertiser reports (hosted.ap.org, 3/17).

Before November 2007, HIV-positive men and women in the prisons weren’t allowed to do much outside their segregated unit. Now they are supposed to be able to eat, worship and visit with family members alongside HIV-negative inmates. However, some prison advocates say that these changes haven’t actually been implemented and that mealtimes, church services and family visits often remain segregated at Limestone.

Margaret Winter, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s National Prison Project, criticized the policy that requires HIV-positive individuals visiting their families to do so in a separate room.

“It’s disturbing because people don’t necessarily tell their family about their HIV status and this is a dead giveaway,” Winter told the AP. “The families are saying ‘Why are we sitting over here and everybody else is over there?’”

NEW! Scroll down to comment on this story.

Name:	(2-50 characters)
Email:	(will not show)
City:	(optional)

Comment (500 characters left):

(Note: The POZ team review all comments before they are posted. Please do not include either ":" or "@" in your comment.)

| Posting Rules

Previous Comments:

Mark A. Stack, Atlanta, GA., 2008-03-21 08:09:01
I was an Inmate at Limestone C.I. back in 1986 and I can tell you some stories about their HIV/AIDS unit there, They think they got it bad now, try it back then, I was the 25th inmate # 144762 to be housed there, and we where kept in lock down, with only 1 -2 hours a day out of our rooms, our meals where brought to us in plastic boxes and cold, was never aloud to go outside until they put up the fence around the side of the drom which kept us from the other inmates, I can tell you more.

ann, Arkansas, 2008-03-20 16:46:19
Seperating them has its advantages and its disadvantages. I dont feel that seperating them from GP is a good thing. It shows others that they are different and may put them at a higher risk, not to mentin if they don't want others to know puts the spot light on them and that is not right. Also if they are not ready to inform their family it puts a strain on them then and they actually dont need any more stress then they have already.It's not right or fair. Just because they are an inmate.

Kevin, Phoenix, 2008-03-20 11:46:17
As an ex-southerner (born and raised but left for good in 2001), stories like this don't suprise me. However things in other more 'progressive' parts of the country aren't always much better. Just take a look at how county jails in LA and Phoenix, Arizona, are run in regards to HIV positive patients. Denying patients timely access to medical care and treatment for HIV is just as bad as segregation. It's just more media-sensational to focus on the south because of its history.

SB, NEW YORK, 2008-03-20 11:26:01
There isn’t a reason why HIV inmates should not be able to pray and visit their loved ones with the GP. However, in an institutional setting being housed separately actually works to the benefit of the offender. These offender has more issues to be addressed and will more likely to get the help that they need segregated then in GP provided that that the facility is managed properly. Mind you, the institutional world differs from the outside world and Brown v Board of Ed may not always apply.

KYguy32, Kentucky, 2008-03-19 23:54:42
As native Alabamian, this does not surprise me. Alabama has been at the root of segregation since its origins. Think about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment. Things haven't changed all that much in 40 years.