NEW HIV IN PRISON COMMITTEE
by Judy Greenspan Thanks to a grant from Vanguard Foundation, large contributions from the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and the Comer Foundation, and donations from hundreds of supporters, the HIV in Prison Committee (HIP) was launched as a new component of California Prison Focus this spring. Since then, we have has been busy continuing the work of the now-closed HIV/AIDS in Prison Project of Catholic Charities of the East Bay and defining new campaigns to support prisoners with HIV/AIDS and those concerned about care and treatment of prisoners with serious and life-threatening illnesses.
One of our goals is to educate the public, AIDS service communities, and criminal justice organizations about the crisis of medical neglect and abuse faced by thousands of prisoners throughout California. We are mounting campaigns to improve conditions for prisoners with HIV/AIDS and other serious illnesses at both the Central California Women's Facility and Corcoran state prison.
The HIP Committee works closely with the CPF Corcoran Committee and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners to challenge the criminally negligent care suffered by prisoners at these prisons. We have conducted several investigative visits to both of these prisons, including visiting HIV+ men locked away in Corcoran's Security Housing Unit. We are pursuing meetings with key legislators and requesting that an investigation be launched at both prisons to expose the substandard care and brutal treatment of men and women prisoners with serious illnesses.
Some of the alarming conditions at both CCWF and Corcoran are:
*Inadequate staffing of sick call and clinic for prisoners with HIV. It often takes several weeks to see a doctor.
*Prescriptions of AIDS treatment drugs are not refilled on time and allowed to lapse for 2-3 weeks. Some prisoners with low t-cells and high viral loads are still placed on anti-retroviral therapy without a protease inhibitor. These practices have been shown to create resistance to the new drugs thus rendering these life-savings treatments ineffective and jeopardizing the health of the HIV+ prisoner.
*Inadequate pain management for those suffering from severe neuropathy and other serious AIDS-related complications.
*No special diets for prisoners who need them.
*Little or no HIV peer education or support. No pastoral care services or peer support in hospital or infirmary.
*Total lack of confidentiality. At Corcoran, the men are escorted to and from the dining hall and at CCWF, a patient's HIV status is prominently displayed on medical charts and file folders.
*Several unnecessary deaths over the past year due to poor medical care and callous treatment by prison staff.
We are one of the initiators of the statewide caravan for prisoners' human rights organized for Saturday, October 17. The caravan will spearhead a protest highlighting many of the issues faced by prisoners inside and the prisoner advocacy movement on the outside: Corcoran-style guard shootings and beatings of prisoners; medical neglect and abuse; the death penalty; INS detention and deportation; the growth of the prison industrial complex at the expense of human needs such as jobs and schools, and the repeal of the inmate's bill of rights.
The HIV in Prison Committee meets the fourth Wednesday of every month at the California Prison Focus office, 2489 Mission Street, #28, San Francisco, 94110, and can be reached at(510) 655-2931.