Confronting Overlapping Epidemics: HIV and Mass Imprisonment | Community HIV/AIDS Mobilization Project

CHAMP Developing Advocacy Campaigns to Confront Overlapping Epidemics: HIV and Mass Imprisonment

At any given time in this country, about 25% of HIV positive people in the United States are under the control of the criminal justice system. This staggering number is perhaps less surprising in the context of new data from the Pew Center, showing that fully 1 in 100 people in the U.S. - more than 2.3 million people - are locked behind bars.

It's not a coincidence that the communities most impacted by massive imprisonment (especially in urban areas and the Southern states) also have the highest rates of HIV infection in the nation. Nearly half of all prisoners are people of African descent, and more than two-thirds of the total prison population are people of color, reflecting - or perhaps contributing to - disparities in HIV infection rates in this country. Women are the fastest rising group to be imprisoned, and the rates of HIV in imprisoned women are even higher than in men.

But the relationship between HIV/AIDS and imprisonment is more pervasive than what happens with people who are locked up. A 2006 CDC study showed that nearly 90% of HIV positive prisoners in Georgia's male facilities were infected before entering prison. Prisoners are at high risk for HIV but have woefully inadequate access to prevention tools, both during confinement and after release. Less than 10% of federal/state prisons and 5% of local jails have effective HIV prevention policies, and most prisoners are released with almost no housing, education, healthcare, or employment assistance.

With high rates of imprisonment impacting some communities or even distinct neighborhoods or specific city blocks, the entire structure of social and sexual networks shifts - encouraging factors like concurrent relationships that have been shown to increase rates of HIV transmission. These structural barriers to risk reduction, combined with the effects of mass imprisonment, are believed to be key factors in the disproportionate impact of HIV in black America.

Thus, these issues are important to anyone interested in a comprehensive HIV prevention strategy in our nation. So why are efforts around the intersection of imprisonment and HIV/AIDS so rare?

The reasons are complicated, but in CHAMP's work we have seen that community-based AIDS organizations struggling with funding cuts may see the problem but lack resources to address it... policy-makers can be daunted by the maze of local, state, federal and now even privatized networks and institutions of police, detention, sentencing, probation and parole... and the voices of people living with or at risk of HIV who have been locked up or are still inside prison are often unheard when it comes to trying to tackle these problems.

To contain and ultimately end the epidemic, HIV prevention policy efforts must include a focus on reducing the scope and impact of sentencing, incarceration, parole and probation.

CHAMP is this year's convener of the John M. Lloyd AIDS Project at Stony Point Center. This annual event is designed to "gather small groups of experts in the field of HIV/AIDS to spend a weekend working on a specific pressing concern related to the HIV pandemic."

We're happy to have the opportunity to bring together 30 HIV/AIDS and prison/jail activists and organizers (including activists who have experienced imprisonment), researchers, strategists, and foundation staff from across the country at the Stony Point Conference Center outside of New York City in mid-May. The goal of the strategy meeting is to develop grassroots campaigns aimed at reducing new HIV infections tied to the massive rates of incarceration in the United States.

We will identify practical and winnable advocacy campaigns that will result in concrete programs or policy changes, and provide the tools to make them realistic for community AIDS groups and allies. The campaigns may include strategies to:

1. Increase access to comprehensive HIV prevention in prisons, jails and re-entry programs;
2. Eliminate harmful post-incarceration burdens or increase re-entry services, and;
3. Reduce the number of prisoners and/or time served per person, through measures like sentencing reform.

These campaigns will be announced and distributed in an organizing toolkit later this year. We look forward to building further alliances with other organizations and individuals across the country that are engaged in these efforts. We're also seeking partners in the philanthropic community to sustain this advocacy to make it an ongoing part of CHAMP's work.

Thanks to the John M. Lloyd Foundation, our Stony Point Steering Committee and all of our convening participants for your help! We look forward to working together to push back against policies fueling the epidemic in communities heavily impacted by imprisonment.

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