NCJ Number
128120
Editor(s)
J Norberry,
M Gaughwin,
S A Geruall
Date Published
1991
Length
296 pages
Annotation
This book contains 28 papers presented at an Australian conference on HIV/AIDS and Prisons held November 19-21, 1990.
Abstract
The conference brought together in formal sessions and informal workshops criminal justice and medical researchers, policymakers and administrators, prison officers, prison health workers, educators, social workers, and members of community organizations. A major achievement of the conference was a consensus communique issued at the close of the proceedings. Among other proposals, the communique calls for agreement between all Australian jurisdictions on the establishment of a common protocol for the collection of epidemiological data on HIV/AIDS in prisons, greater consideration of the use of noncustodial sentences for offenders convicted of drug-related crime, increased access to methadone in prisons, the provision of adequate compensation when HIV is occupationally acquired by prison officers, and the implementation of universal infection-control procedures. Conference papers addressed some of the issues raised by the relationship between health care and security mandates for prison and jail management. Some issues considered are accommodations and testing policies, provisions for inmates to sterilize needles for intravenous drug use in prison, the provision of a needle-exchange program, the availability of condoms, improvement in education and counseling, and the legal duties owed by prison authorities to inmates and prison officers in the face of the HIV/AIDS threat. Research needs are also addressed. Appended conference communique