Sentencing Reform and Its Implications for HIV Prevention Justice

March 17, 2008

A discussion on how sentencing reform could ease the burden of HIV on individuals and communities affected by incarceration.

PRESENTERS:
* Kenyon Farrow, Director of Communications, CHAMP, New York, NY
* Bill McColl, Political Director, AIDS Action, Washington, DC
* Mimi Budnick, Community Organizer, Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE), Providence, RI



The United States incarcerates a higher proportion of its population than any other country, with over 2.3 million people - 1 in 100 Americans - behind bars. In addition to disproportionately affecting people of color, especially African Americans, policing and sentencing practices in the US also significantly imprison people living with HIV/AIDS. More than 25% of all HIV+ persons in the US are or have been incarcerated (and that number increases for common co-occurring infectious diseases such as Hepatitis C and active tuberculosis).

Research to-date suggest that imprisonment itself does not necessarily drive HIV transmission inside prisons and jails, though certainly some infections do occur in them. Analysis of the data shows a low incidence of infections in prisons. Indeed, the overwhelming majority of prisoners leaving prisons HIV-positive entered HIV-positive. Reducing new infections and easing the HIV/AIDS epidemic in communities that bear the burden requires HIV prevention efforts simultaneously on different fronts - including comprehensive prevention and care inside prison walls and structural interventions to reduce the number and sentence duration of incarcerated HIV+ persons.

Sentencing reform reduces the number of people living with and at risk of HIV in the criminal justice system. This is especially true due to the high proportion of the incarcerated being convicted of drug-related or parole violation offenses, which are often subjected to mandatory minimum sentencing laws - outside of a judge's control or discretion. Incarceration intersects with HIV to adversely impact community health and drive higher rates of HIV within communities most impacted by policing and sentencing strategies and laws. Incarceration drives the HIV epidemic by increasing community-level risk through material, social and interpersonal destabilization in communities most affected by it.

Presenters will describe how sentencing practices, including mandates for mandatory minimums, drive imprisonment and target communities of color at risk of HIV. We will explore how incarceration creates community-level vulnerability to HIV by destabilizing communities and relationships, and how it also strips people of rights and imposes limits on the formerly incarcerated person's social and economic participation in the community. Activists organizing for sentencing reform at the federal and state levels will share information and case studies of legislative efforts to end mandatory minimums and reform other sentencing practices.