NCJ Number
151180
Journal
Prison Journal Volume: 73 Issue: 2 Dated: (June 1994) Pages: 198-219
Date Published
1994
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Data from 261 female inmates in New York State prisons were examined to determine the demographic characteristics and risk-related behaviors associated with HIV infection among the female inmates in the State's voluntary HIV testing program.
Abstract
The participants were educated, counseled, and tested by the Criminal Justice Initiative of the New York State Department of Health AIDS Institute between August 1990 and October 1992. The overall HIV seropositivity rate in the sample was 13.4 percent, including just over 11 percent of women under age 30, 14.9 percent of women ages 30-39, and 17.4 percent of women over age 40. Hispanics tested positive at a rate of 19 percent, compared to 13.6 percent for whites and 9 percent for blacks. The rate of seropositivity was also higher for women with less than a high school degree and for women from New York City counties. If further research isolates additional predictors of seropositivity, as the authors' study of male inmates did, the possibility exists of targeting female inmates for individualized counseling. Mass education techniques coupled with individual counseling might be more effective than present approaches at motivating inmates to be tested. Collecting data on risk factors upon intake would also permit counselors to focus on high-risk clients for individualized counseling. Tables, notes, appended coding information, and 29 references (Author abstract modified)