Chicago Tribune - December 2, 2002
Jon Yates, Tribune staff reporter

"I figured it's a good opportunity to do it," said Murray, 19, serving a 4-month sentence for retail theft. "Everybody needs to at least take the test, because you never know."

Rev. Jesse Jackson, who also took the test Sunday, said that message is particularly important in jails and prisons, which he called the epicenter of AIDS in America.

The Rainbow/PUSH Coalition leader said jails are a breeding ground for the disease because inmates are predominantly poor, uneducated and disproportionately black. Although blacks constituted 12 percent of the nation's residents in 2000, they represented more than half of the country's new HIV infections. HIV is the virus that causes AIDS.

To observe the 15th annual World AIDS Day on Sunday, Jackson spoke to about 200 inmates about the disease, then took an oral HIV test with 20 of the men.

"I wish we were doing this in 500 jails today," Jackson said. "This is where this thing is being driven from."

A United Nations report released last week said 42 million people worldwide are infected with the AIDS virus. In Illinois, more than 28,000 cases have been reported since 1981, and 57 percent of those infected have died, state officials said.

Jackson said overcrowded jails help spread the disease, as inmates have sex with other infected inmates. Because so few get tested, some unsuspectingly transmit the disease after their release.

Officials said about 100,000 people go through the Cook County correctional system each year. Last year, roughly 8,000 inmates were tested for HIV while incarcerated. Jail officials said 3.5 percent tested positive, almost eight times the rate found in the general public.

Ciuinal Jones, director of health education for Cook County, said many inmates have never been tested for HIV because they did not have a doctor. In jail, they are offered the test for free.

"We believe it's had a huge impact on the people we serve in jail because many of them don't get health care services in the community," Jones said.

Monte Tillman, 21, of Chicago's West Side said he never had a chance to take the test before Sunday.

"I want to know what's going on inside my body," said Tillman, in jail on a drug charge. "I want to know what's going on in my life."

Jail inmates who took the test held a small swab between their cheek and gum for two minutes. They placed the swabs in plastic vials, which were collected for analysis.

Results will be known in two weeks.

"If you take the test and you're negative, good news," Jackson said. "If you take the test and you're positive, good news because you can get treatment."

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