HIV/AIDS and STDs in Correctional Facilities: 1994 Update

• NCJ Number: 156832
• Author(s): Theodore M. Hammett Ph.D.; Rebecca Widom; Joel Epstein; Michael Gross Ph.D.; Santiago Sifre; Tammy Enos
• Date Published: December 1995
• Length: 104 pages
• Publication Series: NIJ Issues and Practices in Criminal Justice
• Grant Number(s): 94-IJ-CX-K005; OJP-89-C-009
• Agencies: NIJ
• Publication Type: Survey

Annotation

This report presents finding from the eighth national survey of HIV/AIDS in Correctional Facilities, which was conducted between May and December 1994.

Abstract

As in previous years, responses were received from all 50 State correctional systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Twenty-nine large city and county jail systems also responded to the survey. In an effort to assess the extent to which individual facilities comply with or depart from policies established by systems' central offices, the 1994 survey included for the first time a validation study in which an abbreviated version of the instrument was sent to a sample of 50 facilities in 14 State systems and the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Overall, the survey addressed HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in adult corrections as well as tuberculosis (reported in a separate "Research in Brief"). The survey was supplemented with site visits to the State corrections systems of Texas, Vermont, and Massachusetts and to three facilities of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. The 1994 survey found a cumulative total of 4,588 inmate AIDS deaths since the start of the epidemic. At the time of their responses to the survey, correctional systems reported 5,279 current cases of AIDS among inmates. Cases continue to be unevenly distributed across systems and regions, with the highest number of cases in the Middle Atlantic region. Blacks and Hispanics are overrepresented among correctional AIDS cases, as they are among cases in the total populations. AIDS incidence rates are substantially higher among inmates (518 cases per 100,000 State/Federal inmates and 706 per 100,000 city/county inmates in 1994-95) than in the total U.S. population (41 per 100,000 in 1993). HIV seroprevalence rates are also generally higher in prison and jail populations than in the population at large; however, most correctional systems continue to have inmate seroprevalence rates below 2 percent, and seroprevalence rates apparently are declining in most systems. As in previous years, there have been no documented cases of occupational HIV transmission from inmates to correctional staff. This report provides data and information on HIV/STD education and behavioral interventions; precautionary and prevention measures; testing, counseling, confidentiality, and disclosure policies; housing and correctional management; medical care and psychosocial services; and legal issues. 30 tables