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art, arvs, correctional services, counseling, drugs, general population, healthcare, hiv prevention, hiv testing, homosexual, inmates, leeuwkop prison, morality, msm, rape, sexual minorities, stigma, the new age, unprotected sexPrevention in the prison petri dish
Kim Johnson and Melissa Meyer
21 July 2011
The New Age (TNA) has reported that Leeuwkop prison now has a clinic, which provides HIV counseling and testing, antiretroviral treatment (ARV) and monitoring, as well as other primary healthcare services.
Previously prisoners had to travel long distances to access these services and collect their treatment. Given that HIV prevalence among South Africa’s prison population is standing at roughly 40%, the prospect of more readily available treatment certainly is good news.
But as the adage goes, prevention is always better than cure – a truism the prison system might be overlooking.
Whilst HIV prevention programmes have been introduced into some South African prisons, a strong focus on educating specifically around sexual health for men who have sex with men (MSM) would up the ante even further.
In prisons HIV is mainly transmitted through drug use and unprotected sex between male prisoners.
The SA Department of Health has recently recognised a need for HIV prevention programmes targeted at men who have sex with men in the general (or non-prison) population.
This comes with an increasing recognition that many men who practice anal sex do not necessarily identify as homosexual, which means they may feel HIV prevention tailored specifically for gay men does not apply to them.
Public health services have also been reported to act with hostility towards sexual minorities. Add to this the increased risk of exposure to HIV during anal sex and the need for an urgent MSM-targeted response becomes glaringly apparent.
Whilst the stigma around homosexuality certainly is fuelling the epidemic in the general population, without properly tailored education on the risks of man-to-man sex, prisons are like petri dishes for the propagation of the HI virus.
Although most of the male inmates would label themselves as heterosexual, there is often a significant amount of consensual and non-consensual sex going on between male inmates in prison.
This behavior requires a non-stigmatizing and sex-positive approach to speaking about the risks of HIV transmission among men. Moralistic and judgmental sex education that ignores the unique circumstances in prison would only fan the fire.
The important point is that prisons are meant to rehabilitate the incarcerated back into society. Ultimately, this makes prisoner health everyone’s concern.
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