AIDS, Prison, and Preventative Medicine: :: HIV Jail Violence Rape Papers

assist, Prison, and Preventative MedicineThe word prison conjures up thoughts of a dark and deviant subculture, living in a chaotic and destructive milieu out of the sight and mind of mainstream America. Hollywood has skewed our views of pris matchlessrs, painting them as a seemingly irreparable subclass of humans that are only further downgraded and downtrodden by prison lives filled with violence and rape. Certainly the life of a prisoner is tough, and violence is inevitably present in prison systems where gangs frequently play a prominent role in social organization (Conover 2000). However, misconceptions regarding prisons are numerous, and such misconceptions play an important role in how the AIDS problem in prisons is viewed. For example, one of the or so vivid, if non widespread misconceptions surrounding prisons are the stories of forced sexual activity and gang rapesa view likely to lead an outsider to risible that little can be done to prevent transmission of HIV among prisoners. In reality, this aspect of prison has been overdramatized and overemphasized, perhaps as a deliberate sweat to amplify the purported deterring effect that the threat of a prison sentence has on crime. In fact, Ted Conover reports in his first-hand account of the infamous Sing-Sing, one of New Yorks most strike maximum security prisons, that while prison rape still occurs in New York and elsewhere, by far the most common type of prison sex, by and by the autoerotic, is surely consensual. He goes on to say, I would even guess that, at least at Sing, sex between officers and inmates is presently more common than racy sex between inmates (Conover 2000). Such an example is a prime reason why prison officials, politicians and the general public alike need to focus not on the stereotypes of prison behavior, official codes of conduct, and expected or even legal behaviors, but rather what is actually occurring behind prison wallsillegal or legal, for ruin or for worse. If ra pe isnt as widespread in prisons as the average moviegoer might be willing to believeat the very least, it certainly isnt an everyday occurrenceand prisoners are not allowed to have sex or use drugs, then can one expect to see lower incidences of AIDS in prisons? NO As Conovers statement indicates, much of what goes on in prison isnt supposed to take place. Prisoners have sex with each othermost often consensually, but in some instances forciblyand even with guards they take drugs, both injecting and non-injecting they get tattoos they participate in fights that often involve the shedding of blood.