Pubdate: Sat, 22 Sep 2001
Source: Sanford Herald, The (NC)
Copyright: The Sanford Herald 2001
Contact:  http://www.mapinc.org/media/1577
Website: http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?brd48
Author: Tim Preston, Herald Staff Writer

IS WAR ON DRUGS CREATING HIV EPIDEMIC IN AMERICA?

SANFORD - America's "war on drugs" may have sponsored an epidemic within an 
epidemic, according to Dr. David Alain Wohl of the University of North 
Carolina AIDS Research and Treatment Center.

Speaking to health, corrections and social workers during a roundtable 
discussion Thursday about HIV/AIDS in the nation's prisons and jails, Wohl 
said some people become infected with HIV after they are incarcerated, but 
most come into jail or prison with the virus active in their bodies.

"In 1996, one in five HIV-infected people came through jail or prison," 
Wohl said. He added the HIV infection rate for prison inmates is 5.5 times 
higher than it is in general population - a result of increased arrests of 
people with a history of substance abuse.

Health officials have missed incredible opportunities to screen, treat and 
counsel infected people as they were processed through city and county 
jails, and the state's prisons, he said. Because of the numbers involved, 
Wohl said action needs to be taken to change the state and local approach 
to health care for those in the system.

"There are now 6.5 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons in 
America. We have the largest prison population on the planet - more than 
China. And, the rate is increasing every year," Wohl said, displaying 
graphs illustrating that black males are "disproportionately" arrested and 
sentenced.

"If one wanted to create a perfect system to lock up black males - we've 
almost done that," Wohl said, adding "Nine percent of the black male 
population is incarcerated.

"When you target men in a specific community, what happens to the community 
back home? It creates disruptions for the women who are left behind," he 
said, noting the likelihood of replacement sex partners and the particular 
risk of HIV exposure after inmates return to the community. "These social 
disruptions are at a cost that was unforeseen. Simply having a partner in 
prison increases the opportunity for exposure."

Wohl, who works with the state's three prison HIV clinics, said almost 
every inmate released from prison has two priorities - to eat at McDonald's 
and then to have sex - "often within an hour of release."

"People don't stay in prison forever. In North Carolina, men average about 
three years and women about six months. The person in prison today could be 
sitting next to you on the bus tomorrow," Wohl said.

HIV is "dangerously concentrated" in the nation's prisons, Wohl said, but 
there has been little increase in the amount of drug treatment funding 
available for prisoners.

To address the problem, Wohl said corrections officers, social workers and 
health care providers should drastically increase efforts to screen 
incarcerated people for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases such as 
hepatitis, and provide appropriate health care for those infected along 
with transmission-risk education in prisons and "more paternal" discharge 
plans for those being released from custody.

"And, we need to re-think this war on drugs and decide if we can afford 
it," he said, adding that slogans like "three strikes and your out" and 
"get tough on crime" may sound good as part of political campaigns, but may 
ultimately erode quality of life in this country.
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MAP posted-by: Lou King