Community | August 10, 2010 | 4 comments

DOJ threatens to sue over HIV/AIDS segregation policy...Prisons face possible federal fight

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congoboy
While in prison, the separate housing allows the state to provide specialists in a centralized location to treat the HIV-positive inmates, educate them about the virus and disease, and teach them to manage their health, Ozmint said. The segregation also controls the spread of the disease through assaults and sex, and helps to keep the staff safe, he said.COLUMBIA -- South Carolina inmates with HIV and AIDS could be worse off if the federal government has its way, state Department of Corrections Director Jon Ozmint said Tuesday.

The U.S. Department of Justice is threatening to sue the state if the prison system doesn't change its practice of segregating inmates infected with the virus and disease, Ozmint said.

"This is about left-wing politics controlling the United States Justice Department," Ozmint said. "This is about whether you want more AIDS or less AIDS."

Ozmint said all inmates are tested for the disease upon their incarceration. Those who are HIV-positive are sent to the Broad River Correctional Institution in Columbia, where their standard of living matches that of the rest of the prison population, he said.

South Carolina and Alabama are the only states that segregate prisoners with HIV and AIDS
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2010/aug/04/prisons-face-possible-federal-fig...
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  2. tags:
    Prisons,  AIDS/HIV Awareness,  hiv infected prisoners
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4 comments // DOJ threatens to sue over HIV/AIDS segregation policy...Prisons face possible federal fight

  • jubal
    • 0
      jubal  

    • Segregation is a violation of human rights. Just because people who are HIV positive are with people who are not in prison doesn't automatically put all the people in prison at risk...unless they are admitting that rape in prison is extremely common and that the HIV positive inmates are the ones doing the raping.

      This is clearly another attempt to discriminate against the HIV positive population and in line with what Huckabee suggested Reagan do when the virus first emerged on the scene...isolate all the HIV positive population from the rest of the world.

      I think that segregation is wrong. I think education is very good and everyone should be educated. I think all the prisons need to put an end to prison rape.

    • 1 year ago
  • congoboy
  • Sparky2U
    • 0
      Sparky2U  

    • This is a far reach by the Obama administrations DOJ. Why would they want to jeopardize the pot user for example, in for a year, with the prospect of giving him a death sentence by rape? Or is that the idea, to send them back out into the streets to further infect someone else?? Prisoners have fights, they bleed. HIV is deadly regardless what refuse people to believe.

    • 1 year ago
  • congoboy
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