When HIV/AIDS first appeared on the scene in the United States, the first response of prison officials was to segregate HIV-positive prisoners (Greenspan, 2005). They were housed separately from the rest of the prison population and did not receive the same services and amenities as the rest of the prisoners. They were not offered job and educational opportunities as the other prisoners were. In 1991, the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta upheld Alabama's state policy of segregating prisoners who had AIDS from the main prison population (Court, 1991). The Court found that the segregation was a reasonable response by prison officials to prison behavior which might cause a rapid spread of the disease if AIDS prisoners were allowed to remain in the general prison population.
Alabama prison officials had defended segregation on the basis that the prevalence of high-risk behavior in prison, which included drug use and homosexual practices, would otherwise lead to the spread of AIDS (Court, 1991). Since 1987, all inmates have been tested for AIDS, and those who tested positive were housed in special units at Limestone Correctional Facility in northern Alabama and the Julia Tutwiler Prison for Women near Montgomery. The Court stated that because Alabama was trying to control the spread of AIDS, segregating the AIDS prisoners was a "reasonable infringement" of the rights of the infected prisoner, and found that the prison gave these inmates adequate medical care. The ruling was the result of a law suit by 150 infected prisoners seeking to overturn the segregation policy. They won a small victory in that the Court ordered further investigation as to whether these prisoners had been denied equal access to prison educational and recreational programs and legal assistance.
The advantage of mass screenings for AIDS and segregation of HIV positive prisoners is that prisoners are often in close contact, ...