Prisons and AIDS: A Public Health Challenge

The first book of its kind, Prisons and AIDS provides an important model for the design and implementation of HIV and AIDS education and prevention programs in correctional institutions. Through case studies and survey research from a variety of facilities, it reveals critical information about the proliferation of HIV and AIDS in the prison population, covering such topics as frequency of sexual contact, the use of condoms, amount of sexual activity among inmates, drug use, needle sharing, and tattooing behaviors.Written by experts in the field––including lead author Ronald L. Braithwaite, one of the foremost authorities on public health––this book is sensitive to disproportionate ethnic minority representation in the prison population––and offers strategies for developing culturally sensitive programs. The authors also present research which documents the patterns of HIV and AIDS cases among adult juvenile inmates, and explore relevant policies and programs––including education and prevention, testing and disclosure, parental notification, and housing.This resource is grounded in research and information from the National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Foreword,
1. Inmates, HIV, and AIDS: An Overview
2. AIDS and Ethnic Minority Inmates
3. An Analysis of Current Educational and Prevention Efforts
4. Prevention and Juvenile OffAnders
5. Policy Response to a Public Health Opportunity
6. A Report from the Frontline: Four Case Studies
7. Prison Personnel: Gatekeepers to Education and Prevention
8. Legal and Legislative Issues
9. Worldwide Policies and Practices
10. The Public Health Challenge
Afterword

RONALD L. BRAITHWAITE Ph.D., is an associate professor at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University and adjunct associate professor in the Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at Morehouse School of Medicine where he formerly directed a Health Promotion Resource Center. He is the co–editor of Health Issues in the Black Community (1992, Jossey–Bass). THEODORE M. HAMMETT Ph.D., is a vice president at Abt Associates Inc, a policy research firm. His work has focused on public health, corrections, and criminal justice. ROBERT M. MAYBERRY M.P.H., Ph.D., is the director of the Morehouse Medical Treatment Effectiveness Center and associate clinical professor, Department of Community Health and Preventive Medicine at the Morehouse School of Medicine.

?Drs. Braithwaite, Hammett and Mayberry clearly paint the picture of what can happen in a society when it politicizes a major health issue and allows young people to perish for lack of knowledge. . . . We must decide if we want to build bigger, better incubators for crime, tuberculosis and HIV to release in society or if we want to develop healthy educated citizens with hope.? ––M. Joycelyn Elders, M.D., former United States Surgeon General

?Required reading for elected officials, corrections administrators, policy makers and anyone interested in understanding that it is within our grasp to make major strides in our fight against the spread of HIV infection.? ––Edward A. Harrison, president, National Commission of Correctional Health Care

?An illuminating discussion of the complex problems of HIV/AIDS within the correctional setting, including the impact on the families and communities of those incarcerated." ––Mervyn F. Silverman, M.D. MPH, former director of health, San Francisco, former president, American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR)

?The significance of the findings and the policy options, make this book fundamental reading for anyone interested in the implications for public health.? ––Caswell A. Evans, Jr. DDS, MPH, immediate–past president, American Public Health Association

"There is a great deal of useful information in this book that should be understood by all of those in criminal justice and correctional rehabilitation. A recommAnded book for all medical and academic libraries as well as state correctional institutions." ––????????

"This timely, well–written, comprehensively documented, and compellingly argued book provides the template for action." ––Nancy Neveloff Dubler, LL.B., Montefiore Medical Center, Bronx, NY, New England Journal of Medicine