Louisiana prisons Ground Zero for HIV-infected, study finds
4th April 2016 · 0 Comments
By Prescotte Stokes, III
Contributing Writer
Louisiana jails have been labeled as Ground Zero for new HIV-infections among incarcerated inmates in a new 70-page report released by the public health advocacy group Human Rights Watch.
The findings were announced from the steps of Louisiana’s State Capitol building last Tuesday (March 29) in a report titled, “Paying the Price: Failure to Deliver HIV Services in Louisiana Parish Jails.”
The report shows that only a handful of the state’s 104 parish jails offer HIV testing to inmates upon entry as recommended by the United States government’s Center for Disease Control. It says that Baton Rouge and New Orleans lead the country in new HIV infections each year. Megan McLemore, Senior Health Researcher for Human Rights Watch, says combining that with roughly one out of every 75 Louisiana adults being in jail or prison makes the need for reform more urgent than ever.
“Louisiana is putting so many people in jail but then they are not taking responsibility for providing adequate medical care,” said McLemore.
The report states that as of January 2016 the Louisiana Department of Corrections housed 525 prisoners living with HIV. McLemore says many of those prisoners aren’t aware that they are infected until being tested during entry.
“Nationally most people with HIV have it before they go into jail, and, yes, they will be going in and out of Louisiana jails without ever knowing their status,” said McLemore.
Thirty-nine-year-old Marvin Aguillard has been HIV-positive for the past 13 years and shared his story about a seven-month stint in Orleans Parish Prison back in June of 2012. He says upon being booked into the jail he notified the OPP’s medical staff that he was HIV-positive.
“I sat there for between 40 to 47 days without any treatment, said Aguillard. Once I got the medicine my body was so resistant to it I was vomiting, I had diarrhea real bad and anything I ate came out of me within 5 minutes.”
The CDC recommends correctional facilities provide routine voluntary HIV-testing to inmates to promote awareness of their status. In Louisiana the report shows that only five of 104 parish jails regularly offer HIV tests. In some parish jails HIV tests are only performed if a prisoner appears ill or requests a test.
“By the time someone is ill with HIV they are in a very serious situation medically,” said McLemore.
Aguillard says once he received his medication his body began rejecting the treatments. He also added that he never saw a doctor during his stint in OPP and was not offered any outbound treatment upon his release.
“For me to be off my medication for 47 days it brought my numbers to an all-time low,” said Aguillard.
A treatment course can cost a prison more than $50,000 per year on average. Like in other state counties across the U.S., local parishes bear the responsibility to pay for HIV-testing of prisoners. The federal government offers pint-sized assistance in rare cases.
“If prisoners know they are not going to get treatment or get treated badly there’s no upside to do it,” said McLemore.
While the cost barriers associated with HIV-testing affect parish jails, the report says the state Department of Corrections has an HIV testing program and a solid discharge-planning program for HIV-positive prisoners. But the report says only nine state run facilities administer those programs and roughly half of Louisiana’s 18,000 state prisoners are housed parish jails.
According to the report, the DOC claims that there are currently no HIV-positive prisoners in local parish jails. The DOC argues that HIV-positive prisoners are quickly transferred to their facilities. Aguillard says he’s spent about seven years of his life off and on behind bars and he disagrees with that assessment.
“I’d say per 100 people I’ve came in contact with, maybe 15 to 20 of them were HIV-positive,” said Aguillard.
He says Louisiana parish jails on a restrained budget should look toward East Baton Rouge Parish for an example of how to provide care to prisoners.
“The doctors they have there are exceptional hands-down,” said Aguillard. “I received my medicine within 24 hours upon entering.”
But McLemore says even in East Baton Rouge Parish she’s received mixed reports of proper treatment.
“That’s what I’m saying about it being spotty there were problems reported at all of the jails even the ones that are doing HIV-testing,” said McLemore.
McLemore says the report’s findings do offer a way to improve treatment for HIV-positive prisoners. She says the Department of Public Health can become more proactive by working with community providers and jail officials in each region.
“Get with AIDS service organizations and bring them together and train everybody on how they should be dealing with HIV,” said McLemore.
This article originally published in the April 4, 2016 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
