NCJ Number
114742
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 50 Issue: 7 Dated: (December 1988) Pages: 88-90
Date Published
1988
Length
3 pages
Annotation
The penal systems of Philadelphia, Vermont, Mississippi, and New York City provide condoms to inmates in an effort to prevent the spread of AIDS among inmates, but debate surrounding the issue is sufficiently intense to prevent rapid expansion of this policy throughout the Nation.
Abstract
Philadelphia's Mayor Goode has ordered the city's Public Health Department to begin providing condoms to prison inmates, in accordance with the health commissioner's recommendation but against the opposition of the city's prison board. Proponents of the policy in Philadelphia and in other jurisdictions across the Nation argue that homosexual activity occurs in jails and prisons despite efforts to prevent it, so condoms should be provided inmates as a means of controlling the spread of AIDS through inmate sexual activity. Although there is no conclusive evidence of the success of this policy, neither is there any evidence that the distribution of condoms to inmates has increased sexual activity among inmates. Opponents of the policy argue that the distribution of condoms places the prison administration in the position of opposing homosexual acts among inmates while simultaneously condoning it through the distribution of condoms. Heterosexual inmates deprived of conjugal sex while in jail or prison say the policy of distributing condoms appears to indicate that homosexual sex is okay but heterosexual contacts are prohibited. Strong support for condom distribution to inmates is only likely to occur if AIDS reaches epidemic proportions in jails and prisons.