Philadelphia city
officials are currently reviewing a change in policy
that would give prison inmates greater access to condoms,
the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Friday. Though
condoms have been distributed in city prisons since 1988,
the new policy would add condoms to the commissary
list, thereby allowing inmates to openly purchase them
and normalizing their presence to guards and other
prison workers.
Local AIDS
activists, including members of the Philadelphia chapter of
ACT UP, have been lobbying the city to update their policy,
claiming that prisoners who obtained condoms from the
city's AIDS prevention office reported having them
confiscated by guards. Studies have shown prisoners
are five times more likely to be infected with HIV than
individuals in the general population, and a study
released by the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention this year found that 71% of Georgia inmates had
sex in prison, either with each other or with prison
employees.
"We're really,
really happy that we have a prison system that doesn't
have its head in the sand," the Inquirer
reported ACT UP member Jose de Marco as saying. "This is a
health issue." Marco went on to say that institutional
bans on sexual activity do not curb instances of sex
between inmates, and that those behind bars are often
members of groups at high risk for having contracted
HIV pre-incarceration.
Philadelphia's
approach is already much more progressive than most state
and municipal correctional facilities in America, as the
potential for using condoms to smuggle illegal goods
has led to their designation as "contraband."
Currently only prisons in Vermont, New York City, San
Francisco, Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles provide condoms
for inmates, with some Mississippi prisons allowing
distribution to married inmates, according to the CDC.
Sheila Moore,
deputy press secretary for the Pennsylvania Department of
Corrections, espouses the view held by most American prison
officials: "A condom would have no legitimate purpose
in any of our facilities," she told the
Inquirer. "They can also be used to conceal
drugs."
New Jersey
Corrections spokeswoman Deirdre Fedkenheuer shares the same
sentiment: "Sexual contact is a prohibited act," she told
the Inquirer. "Hence condoms don't even enter
into the equation." (The Advocate)