NCJ Number
127487
Journal
Human Rights Volume: 17 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1990) Pages: 46-52
Date Published
1990
Length
7 pages
Annotation
Segregation of prisoners with AIDS as a common policy in prisons is discussed as to its legality and its procedures. How one lawyer fought the system for his segregated client forms the basis of the article's exploration of prison segregation.
Abstract
With the numbers of prisoners with AIDS increasing, the question of whether or not to segregate prisoners with AIDS is one of the most difficult decisions for prison administrators. The policy of segregation also makes it impossible for an inmate with AIDS to maintain the confidentiality of status or to return to the community without being labeled as an "AIDS carrier." At the same time, segregation of inmates with AIDS reinforces the myths and unfounded hysteria surrounding the disease. Many states are now voluntarily reversing their policies of blanket segregation of inmates with AIDS as a result of a consent judgment signed in August 1989 and of another court case, Doe v. Coughlin, decided in 1988 in New York. Nonsegregation is working successfully in a prison system in which HIV infection and AIDS is and will continue to be widely prevalent.