Author Topic: Judge orders segregating hiv prisoners stopped in ALA. Thanks aclu.  (Read 229 times)

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Offline powderman

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Judge orders Alabama to stop segregation of prisoners living with HIV  Published December 21, 2012
FoxNews.com    A federal judge in Alabama has ordered the state to stop segregating its prisoners living with HIV, a “historic decision” according to prison advocates who successfully argued the practice violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
In a 153-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Myron H. Thompson ruled Friday in a class-action lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that the Alabama Department of Corrections discriminates against the state’s 250 prisoners living with the disease by housing them separately and denies them equal access to rehabilitative programs.

 
“Today’s decision is historic."
- Margaret Winter, ACLU National Prison Project
“Today’s decision is historic,” said Margaret Winter, associate director of the ACLU National Prison Project and lead counsel for the plaintiffs.  “It spells an end to a segregation policy that has inflicted needless misery on Alabama prisoners with HIV and their families.”
Thompson, in his decision, said that while the state’s segregation policy has been an unnecessary tool for preventing the transmission of HIV, it has been an effective one for “humiliating and isolating” prisoners living with the disease.
 
"It is not transmitted through casual contact or through the food supply," he wrote. "A person would have to drink a 55-gallon drum of saliva in order for it to potentially result in a transmission. There is no documented case of HIV being sexually transmitted between women."
 
Thompson’s ruling issued a permanent injunction ordering Alabama to halt its discriminatory practices, including the categorical exclusion of prisoners with HIV from work-release jobs in the food industry, assignment to faith-based honor dorms and other educational and vocational programs.
The decision also prohibits the state’s policy of requiring all male prisoners with HIV to wear white armbands at all times to inform others of their health status. Winter characterized the armbands as a “latter-day yellow star,” referring to a patch that Jews were ordered by Nazi Germans to wear in public.
 
“Ending a policy that treated human beings like cattle to be tagged and herded is a tremendous victory for human rights,” said Olivia Turner, executive director of the ACLU of Alabama.
The lawsuit, Henderson et al v. Thomas et al, was filed last year. A month-long trial that began on Sept. 17 in Montgomery followed, with ACLU attorneys arguing that the state’s HIV policy is not based on legitimate interests in safety and is unnecessary to prevent transmission of the disease. Alabama and South Carolina are the only states that segregate HIV-positive prisoners.
 
“Alabama’s policies regarding prisoners living with HIV are relics from an era of hysteria,” said Amanda Goad, staff attorney with the ACLU AIDS Project. “We look forward to seeing the Department of Corrections fully implement Judge Thompson’s decision and end its discriminatory practices.”
The risk of transmitting HIV is virtually nonexistent for patients properly treated with modern medication, according to expert testimony during the trial. The Alabama Department of Corrections’ associate commissioner also admitted during cross-examination that he no longer believed HIV-segregation was justified.
 
The department, after an initial review of the ruling, said it was "very disappointed with the conclusions and characterizations reached by the court."
"The men and women of the (Department of Corrections) are not prejudiced against HIV-positive inmates, and have worked hard over the years to improve their health care, living conditions, and their activities," Commissioner Kim Thomas said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/12/21/judge-orders-alabama-to-stop-segregation-prisoners-living-with-hiv/?test=latestnews#ixzz2FjhQWSkn
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Offline Conan The Librarian

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Re: Judge orders segregating hiv prisoners stopped in ALA. Thanks aclu.
« Reply #1 on: December 21, 2012, 02:05:50 PM »
The kind of contact that happens in prison isn't what I'd call casual contact. It can be bloody, and the disease is spread through blood. What are the guards supposed to do now? This increases the mortal danger of an already dangerous work environment. So don't separate them to separate them from other prisoners.. Instead, separate them from the guards.

Offline Ranger99

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Re: Judge orders segregating hiv prisoners stopped in ALA. Thanks aclu.
« Reply #2 on: December 21, 2012, 04:43:42 PM »
god forbid that someone gets
embarrassed or feels "uncomfortable"
if they're made to be separate from
other inmates.  ever wonder how
disease spreads so easily in this
new century after so many years of
working to conquer infectious diseases?
cuz if we quarantine folks that are sick like
we should and have done in the past
while getting diseases under control
someone is made to feel "uncomfortable"
and dammit we can't have that! ! !


that's why t.b. and plaugue and the like are coming
back strong
18 MINUTES.  . . . . . .

Offline handi243

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Re: Judge orders segregating hiv prisoners stopped in ALA. Thanks aclu.
« Reply #3 on: December 22, 2012, 03:53:32 AM »
You guys would not believe what the rights they have in Prison!! I work as a Correctional Officer i see it every day. They have more right than people on the streets. By the way when i left work on thursday afternoon they where bringing in pizza (1 large cheese Pizza) for the every inmate in the unit!! We have 714 on the unit On Nov 1st of every year $4.00 goes into a acct. to buy these.  37,939 as of today is the population in the North Carolina prison system. 37,939x4 is $151,756.00!!! Tax dollars at work!!!!

Offline magooch

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Re: Judge orders segregating hiv prisoners stopped in ALA. Thanks aclu.
« Reply #4 on: December 22, 2012, 04:10:21 AM »
A prison should be a prison and that would mean you are put in a cell by yourself and that's where you stay.  You leave the cell when your time is up.
Swingem