Important note: Information in this article was accurate in June 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Being Alive Opposes Mandatory Testing of HIV+ Inmates Being Alive - June-July, 2002 Brad Sears
This year California State Assemblyman Roderick Wright introduced legislation, AB 2905, that would require mandatory testing of all inmates in California Correctional Facilities. Under the proposed legislation, inmates incarcerated for more than a year, including youth and patients committed to state hospitals, would be tested for HIV both when they entered a correctional facility and before they left.
On behalf of Being Alive, the Being Alive Advocacy Committee drafted a letter to members of the California legislature opposing AB 2905 because:
1) it violated the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS;
2) it would be extremely expensive, and
3) it would not do anything to address the very real problem of HIV/AIDS in correctional facilities.
Being Alive is firmly opposed to forced HIV-testing of any segment of the population, including prisoners. Individuals should be treated with dignity and be allowed to make their own decisions about when to be tested and when to seek treatment. We believe that the best way to handle the HIV crisis in correctional facilities is through prevention education, condom distribution, and other harm reduction programs.
In response to Being Alive's letter and the work of other advocacy groups, Assemblyman Wright has since amended his bill so that it no longer requires mandatory testing of prisoners. The text of the Advocacy Committee's letter is shown below.
Dear Assembly Members Wright, Thompson, and Koretz:
On behalf of Being Alive Los Angeles, Inc., an organization of, by, and for people living with HIV and AIDS in Los Angeles County, I write to express our opposition to AB 2905 (Wright). Being Alive is California's oldest and largest peer-led organization for people living with HIV, and some of our members are, or formerly have been, incarcerated.
While we applaud Assemblyman Wright for calling attention to the public health crisis of HIV in California's correctional facilities, AB 2905 will be enormously expensive, violate the rights of the incarcerated, and do nothing to directly reduce the spread of HIV. AB 2905 mandates HIV testing for all California inmates, including youth and patients committed to state hospitals, incarcerated for more than a year, as they enter and leave the system. The bill appears to be targeted solely at collecting data about the spread of HIV in correctional facilities. However, with regards to the spread of HIV in our state's correctional facilities, and its consequent impact on communities in which the post-incarcerated live: the numbers are in; the crisis is clear; what is needed is action.
AB 2905 purports to address the high rate of HIV infection and risk behavior in California's jail and prisons -- explicitly noting that condoms are allowed in almost no correctional facilities. However, mandatory testing does little to prevent new infections in jail and prison and violates the fundamental rights of the incarcerated.
Mandatory testing of California inmates will:
Increase the medical costs of prisons. Implementing AB 2905 will cost the CDC millions of dollars each year.
Do nothing to reduce the spread of HIV. Despite its enormous costs, AB 2905 will do nothing to directly reduce the spread of HIV either in correctional facilities or in the communities where the post-incarcerated live. Mandatory testing, and consequent data documenting the risk of infection in correctional facilities, will not inevitably result in the adoption of risk reduction programs. Current data already proves that the spread of HIV in correctional facilities is a public health crisis -- and correctional facilities do nothing.
Subject communities of color to mandatory testing at a greater rate than white Californians. California incarcerates members of communities of color at a disproportionately high rate; based on the respective incarceration rates by race, mandatory testing of inmates means an African-American Californian is 10 times more likely to be subjected to mandatory testing -- and Latinos 2.5 times as likely -- as the average white Californian.
Violate California's constitutional right to privacy. California's constitutional right to privacy guarantee is broad -- broader than the federal privacy right -- and protects citizens' against intrusions into bodily integrity and disclosure of medical information by the state that is not justified by a compelling state interest. AB 2905 would be highly vulnerable to attack as an unjustified intrusion into citizens' privacy, especially because it mandates testing without mandating any treatment or risk reduction programs. It is not clear what state interest such testing, standing alone, serves.
Potentially lead to segregation of HIV-infected inmates. Three states in the nation segregate inmates with HIV. Conditions of these inmates, including access to prison programs, are inferior to inmates not identified as HIV+. Courts have upheld such segregation in these states based on disease prevention arguments rooted in those states' mandatory testing policies. If California adopts mandatory testing of inmates, it may result in segregation and discrimination against people living with HIV.
The Real Solution: Risk-Reduction Programs, Not Testing. As the bill itself recognizes, the best way to prevent the spread of HIV in jails and prisons is through risk-reduction programs such as condom distribution. CorrectHELP, which is sending you a letter regarding AB 2905 under separate cover, has developed a highly effective and smooth functioning condom distribution and risk-reduction education program in California's largest jail system, the Los Angeles County Jail.
On behalf of its members, Being Alive urges that AB 2905 not be enacted in its present form. Instead, the California legislature should amend AB 2905 in the following ways:
Eliminate the requirement of mandatory testing entirely, and instead mandate that all inmates in CDC facilities be offered a voluntary HIV test with appropriate pre and post test counseling;
Mandate all CDC facilities adopt condom distribution and risk reduction education programs that are designed to reduce the spread of HIV in correctional facilities and in the communities where the post-incarcerated live; and
Mandate a study of the condom distribution and risk reduction education program initiated by the Los Angles County Jail and CorrectHelp this year, in order that reliable outcome data can be gathered to support the effectiveness of condom distribution and risk reduction programs in correctional facilities.
By enacting these measures, California will be at the forefront of fighting HIV in correctional facilities. Being Alive and CorrectHelp stand ready to lend their expertise to assist the California legislature in addressing the public health crisis of HIV infection in our jails and prisons through voluntary risk-reduction programs.
Please contact me if I can provide additional information or be of any assistance.
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Important note: Information in this article was accurate in June 2002. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
