AIDS, Prison, and Preventative Medicine: :: HIV Jail Violence Rape Papers

AIDS, Prison, and Preventative Medicine The word "prison" conjures up thoughts of a dark and deviant subculture, living in a chaotic and destructive environment out of the sight and mind of mainstream America. Hollywood has skewed our views of prisoners, painting them as a seemingly irreparable subclass of humans that are only further downgraded and downtrodden by prison lives filled with violence and rape. Certainly the life of a prisoner is tough, and violence is inevitably present in prison systems where gangs frequently play a prominent role in social organization (Conover 2000). However, misconceptions regarding prisons are numerous, and such misconceptions play an important role in how the AIDS problem in prisons is viewed. For example, one of the most vivid, if not widespread misconceptions surrounding prisons are the stories of forced sexual activity and gang rapes—a view likely to lead an outsider to suspect that little can be done to prevent transmission of HIV among prisoners. In reality, this aspect of prison has been overdramatized and overemphasized, perhaps as a deliberate effort to amplify the purported deterring effect that the threat of a prison sentence has on crime. In fact, Ted Conover reports in his first-hand account of the infamous Sing-Sing, one of New York's most troubled maximum security prisons, that while "prison rape still occurs in New York and elsewhere," by far the most common type of prison sex, "after the autoerotic, is certainly consensual." He goes on to say, "I would even guess that, at least at Sing, sex between officers and inmates is presently more common than forcible sex between inmates" (Conover 2000). Such an example is a prime reason why prison officials, p oliticians and the general public alike need to focus not on the stereotypes of prison behavior, official codes of conduct, and expected or even legal behaviors, but rather what is actually occurring behind prison walls—illegal or legal, for better or for worse. If rape isn't as widespread in prisons as the average moviegoer might be willing to believe—at the very least, it certainly isn't an everyday occurrence—and prisoners are not allowed to have sex or use drugs, then can one expect to see lower incidences of AIDS in prisons? NO! As Conover's statement indicates, much of what goes on in prison isn't "supposed" to take place. Prisoners have sex with each other—most often consensually, but in some instances forcibly—and even with guards; they take drugs, both injecting and non-injecting; they get tattoos; they participate in fights that often involve the shedding of blood.