STATUTES AND CONSTITUTIONAL PROVISIONS INVOLVED vii
I. THE SUPREME COURT OF SAN PEDRO CORRECTLY RULED THAT THE PETITIONER'S EIGHTH AMENDMENT RIGHT TO BE SECURE FROM CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT IS NOT VIOLATED BY A SENTENCE OF TWO YEARS IN A STATE PENITENTIARY WHERE A MAJORITY OF THE INMATES ARE REPORTED TO BE INFECTED WITH THE AIDS VIRUS 2
A. Any challenge of prison conditions under the Eighth amendment prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment must satisfy a two part test in order to establish a violation of this right 3
1. The petitioner must show first that the challenged conditions inside the prison will deny him the "minimal civilized measure of life's necessities," and then show "wantonness" or "deliberate indifference" on the part of the prison officials with regard to the challenged conditions 3
B. Being sentenced to a two-year term in a prison where a majority of the inmates have AIDS does not meet the requirements of the first prong of the Wilson test 4
1. AIDS is not a contagious disease as understood by those decisions which have held that the government has a duty to protect prisoners from such diseases, since AIDS is not communicable through casual contact 4
2. While courts have held that conditions of violence within a prison may rise to the level of an Eighth Amendment violation, these conditions must amount to more than simply isolated incidents between individual inmates 5
3. The petitioner has not provided evidence to show that his fear of assault while serving out his sentence in Bobbitt State Penitentiary is based upon actual conditions inside the institution 7
C. Under the second, subjective, prong of the Wilson test, the petitioner has not shown "wantonness" or "deliberate indifference" on the part of the prison officials in allowing the challenged conditions to exist or on the part of the judge in imposing the sentence 8
2. In cases involving the presence of AIDS in a prison po...