HIV Under Lock and Key

The condition of U.S. prisons as I have said before is all but a death sentence. The lack of any protection of an inmate from getting IDS while serving his or her term is a slaughterhouse waiting for more hooks to be installed so the new meat can be seen admired and bid on. The argument always comes to capitol punishment, but do you think of being HIV positive is capitol punishment? Hours, days and months, years, spent on death row waiting for a needle to be stuck in your arm is hideous but to suffer through the full exposure to the entire population.
Quite a lot of inmates have been proven innocent through DNA investigations but it is never told how many of those individuals were infected with HIV while they were serving time as an innocent man or woman. The argument or debate if you will about healthcare is not as important to an inmate falsely accused who is fighting for his life. The most recent presidential election came and went and possibly hundreds of innocent inmates life did not change. Can you remember the last time any meaningful legislation was pursed on the floor of the congress or the senate was discussed? It is the same reason that people of color are dying for no good reason other than genocide in Darfur and Rwanda; there is no help to the politician’s career there. No natural resources to exploit so people of color die, in terms of American prisons and conditions there it is more important for a politician to appear tough on crime than it is to be soft on survival.
- Chris Mansel