California assembly passes bill allowing distribution of condoms in prisons

The California assembly on Wednesday voted 41-34 in favor of a measure that would permit health and nonprofit agencies to distribute condoms in state prisons. The bill's sponsor, Democrat Paul Koretz, said HIV is eight times more prevalent in prison than in the general population and anti-HIV medications cost the state Department of Corrections $14 million a year. "Our prisons are HIV infection factories and we are paying tens of millions of dollars a year for not making condoms available," he said. "This is not an untested policy," added Koretz. "It's been done successfully all over the world," including, he said, most countries in Europe, Canada, Australia, Brazil, and South Africa, the states of Vermont and Mississippi, and the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. But Republican assemblyman Dennis Mountjoy called the measure "absolute insanity." "What you are doing is facilitating lawbreakers," he said. Assemblywoman Jackie countered that inmates still engage in sex behind bars despite the prohibition against it, and infected inmates can transmit HIV to their wives and girlfriends once they are released. "Those of you who talk to us all the time about caring about life, let's worry about the lives of people who get infected because these inmates get out," she said. The measure now advances to the state senate. (AP)