Health Promotion and Human Right Protection: Finding a Balance for HIV Testing Policies in U.S. State Prisons

Abstract

In 2008, approximately 1.5 million people were reported to be incarcerated in a prison in the United States (Maruschak, 2009). Previous research has shown that many incarcerated individuals engage in high-risk sexual behaviors and/or have a history of substance abuse (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], n.d., para. 2), thereby putting them in a high-risk group for contracting HIV infection. As one would expect, this high-risk behavior has translated into startling statistics. According to the most recent U.S. Bureau of Justice report, the number of HIV-infected individuals living in the United States who are incarcerated is approximately 2.5 times higher than that of the general population (Maruschak, 2009). What is even more alarming is the fact that many of the infected individuals are unaware of their HIV status at the time of incarceration (Desai, Latta, Spaulding, Rich, & Flanigan, 2002). In addition to the high-risk behaviors engaged in by many of those who enter prison before their incarceration, once an individual is established within the prison setting, high-risk behaviors often continue. Many studies have examined the incidence of sexual activity in prisons; however, the results have been far from conclusive. Saum, Surratt, Inciardi, and Bennett (1995) reported a rate of 2%, whereas an earlier survey that was conducted when HIV was a newly emerging and unknown infection estimated a much higher rate of 65% (Wooden & Parker, 1982).