AIDS Drugs Help Cut Mass. Prison Deaths

Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1997. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.

AIDS Drugs Help Cut Mass. Prison Deaths

Boston Globe (12/26/97) P. A1
Dowdy, Zachary R.

Abstract: Thanks to a Massachusetts state program that offers expensive medications and drug therapies to inmates with AIDS, the number of AIDS-related deaths in prison has fallen from 29 in 1990 to just one so far this year. According to the state Department of Public Health's (DPH's) medical provider, Correctional Medical Services, all inmates who would benefit from the program are eligible for access to combination drug therapies, including protease inhibitors. Alfred DeMaria, director of communicable disease control for DPH, notes that Massachusetts inmates have better access to the best drug therapies than some people in poorer, underinsured states. A number of state programs that fund AIDS treatments enable all Massachusetts residents who needs the drugs access to them. However, poor people in some other states are forced to go through a lottery system. Some critics argue that the prison drug program seems unfair. Says Miriam Shehane of Montgomery, Alabama's Victims of Crime and Leniency, "It does bother me that [the prisoners] are taken better care of than those of us outside of prison [in other states]." Meanwhile, doctors say inmates need top-quality health care, despite the cost and their crimes against society. Moreover, adds Anne De Groot of the Brown University School of Medicine, "Prisons are an exceptionally important point of entry for HIV-infected people to the health care system."

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