Discussion 5
As a prison administrator I would recommend that all inmates coming into my prison be
tested, simply for my medical staff and all other staff to know who they are having contact with.
I don’t think HIV testing should be treated no different that the test for tuberculosis (TB).
Tuberculosis is just as bad as HIV because it is air borne. As a former corrections officer we were
tested for TB as part of a required physical, even inmates must take the TB test. I think the same
precautions she be used when receiving an inmate rather he or she is new or transferring in from
another facility. There will of course be a strict HIPPA policy in place to protect the inmates’
rights and privacy.
According to the 2006 Bureau of Justice Statistic report, only 21 states required testing of
all inmates for HIV upon admission or during their custody” (Gideon & Sung, 2011, p 258). That
is not many correction facilities. I think it would be a good idea to screen all incoming inmates
and if I were a prison administrator. A basic health screening may do several things: take a
general health inventory of incoming inmates, serve as a general preventative screening and alert
to serious conditions, such as HIV/AIDS.
“In correctional facilities, communicable diseases must be promptly reported in order to
limit the spread of the disease. Timely disease reporting also assists public health officials’
efforts to identify high-risk groups, develop disease prevention programs, create health care
policy, and monitor the spread of infectious diseases over specific time periods” (Barraza et al,
2015, p 217).
Although every incident involving blood should be treated with precaution, but with staff
knowing the status of the inmates, lets the medical staff know how to approach the exposed and
what they should do.
Some facilities feel the need to segregate those inmates that are HIV positive. In
California, male prisoners identified as HIV-positive are segregated from other prisoners and
suffer discrimination and substandard programming (Weinstein & Greenspan, 2003). Segregating
inmates in population and from programs is not in the best interest of the offender regardless of
their medical condition. If those inmates aren’t segregated, they wouldn’t have to deal with the
discrimination. I for one wouldn’t segregate the inmates because I feel that it violates their
HIPPA rights, their privacy, & the confidentiality of the matter. Although prisons are designed to
punish, they are also designed to protect the inmates rather it’s physically or medically.
References
Barraza, L., Collmer, V., Meza, N., & Penunuri, K. (2015). The legal Implications of HIPPA
Privacy and Public Health Reporting for Correctional Facilities. Journal of Correctional
Health Care, 21(3), 213-221. Doi:10.1177/1078345815585050
Gideon, L., & Sung, H. (2011). Rethinking Corrections: Rehabilitation, reentry, and
reintegration.
Weinstein, c., & Greenspan, J. (2003). Mandatory HIV testing in prisons. American journal of
public health, 93(10), 1617; author reply 1617.
