|
Ala. Inmates With HIV Barred From Work
by The Associated Press
Posted: March 24, 2008 - 5:00 pm ET
(Montgomery, Alabama) Prison
inmate Kathryn Canty seems like a prime candidate for work
release: good behavior, less than three years left to serve,
and an accounting degree along with vocational training.
But she also has HIV.
And inmate advocates say
Alabama is the only state that bars prisoners with the AIDS
virus from participating in work release.
"I'm a worker," said
Canty, who finishes her 4 1/2-year sentence for forgery and
theft next month. "Work release would have been a great
help for me to catch up with technology as well as saving
money to get back on my feet."
Work release is the closest
thing to freedom for prisoners in Alabama, allowing select
inmates to hold jobs on the outside, earn money and wear
street clothes. They typically work at blue-collar jobs during
the day and return to prison at night.
Alabama Corrections Department
officials said HIV-infected inmates are barred because of a
2004 settlement under which the prison system agreed to watch
such prisoners take their AIDS pills and make sure they are
eating properly, too.
Such close monitoring -
prompted by a lawsuit over poor health care for those with the
AIDS virus - would be impossible on the outside, according to
the department.
Also, Ruth Naglich, the
department's associate commissioner of health services, said
allowing inmates with HIV to work on the outside could expose
them to illnesses and spread the AIDS virus.
Some Alabama lawmakers and the
American Civil Liberties Union have been pressing officials to
remove the restriction.
"I think we're dealing
with a long custom here in Alabama. There's fear here,"
said Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU's
National Prison Project. "Certainly we have no reason to
think anything the commissioner is doing is based on malice -
far from it - but there needs to be a rational look at the
facts."
Work release ultimately
"means less crime, fewer people returning to prison and
ultimately it means a safer society for everybody," said
David Fathi, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights
Watch. "So by denying work release to inmates with HIV
who would otherwise be eligible, Alabama is shooting itself in
the foot."
Alabama Corrections
Commissioner Richard Allen said that the situation is under
review.
Alabama's women's prison has 15
people with HIV, and the men's medical ward averages 278,
officials said. But only a few are eligible for work release -
"A handful of women and maybe a score of men," Allen
said - since the program is closed to murderers, rapists and
other violent criminals, and inmates must meet other
requirements.
On the outside, work release
inmates typically land fast-food, clerical, maintenance or
factory jobs.
Canty, who has completed
courses in anger management, professional development and
commercial interior design, applied for work release in 2005,
2006 and 2007 and was turned down each time.
"I felt abandoned or just
like I don't matter," she said.
©365Gay.com 2008
|
Entertainment
