Hiv in Prisons

In prisons across America, the spread of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) has become quite the challenge to prevent. The spread of HIV has become quite the epidemic for prisons and jails in America and fighting the spread of this infection is an extremely difficult process. There are many reasons why the spread of HIV is one of the biggest issues that America's Correction System must deal with. First and foremost, many of the inmates infected with HIV will eventually return to society. Second, there is very little protection available within prisons and jails to prevent the spread of HIV among inmates. Lastly, HIV infected inmates can spread the virus to other inmates, as well as, the prison staff. This paper will focus on how HIV is spread within the American Correctional System, as well as, ways to prevent the spread of HIV, and correct this ongoing issue.

America's prisons are a high-risk area for HIV transmission, and the occurrence of HIV within America's prison system is often much higher than in the general community. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, "On December 31, 2008, a reported 20,449 state prisoners and 1,538 federal prisoners were HIV positive or had confirmed AIDS. At yearend 2008, an estimated 5,733 inmates in state and federal prisons had confirmed AIDS, down from 5,814 in 2007. In 2007, about 41 per 10,000 prison inmates were estimated to have confirmed AIDS, compared to 17 per 10,000 persons in the general population" (Maruschak, 2007). This gives a confirmed HIV/AIDS total of 21,987. "Between 2007 and 2008, the percentage of male inmates with HIV/AIDS was 1.5 percent, while the percentage of female inmates with HIV/AIDS was 1.9 percent" (Maruschak, 2007).

According to Aidsinfo.net, "The rate of HIV infection is higher among female inmates 2.4%) than among male inmates (1.7 %)" (Hiv in prisons, 2010). The question is; how does HIV enter America's correction system? Injecting drug use, HIV, and incarceration are closely linked. Many of the people that pass through the correctional system are injecting drug users and are in the correctional system because of drug-related offenses (Prisons, prisoners, and hiv/aids, 2011). Injecting drug users are at a greater risk of being infected with HIV due in part to the transfer of blood through the sharing of needles when injecting the drug. This poses a threat to America's Correctional System, because the risk of HIV is greatly increased due to the lack of available preventative measures once an individual is incarcerated.

While it may be difficult and illegal for inmates to acquire any sort of injecting tools, it is not unheard of behind prison walls. Possessing a needle while incarcerated is a punishable offense, and therefore many prisoners may use the same non-sterile injecting tools as prisoners infected with HIV in an attempt to not be caught by correction officers. However,