HIV/AIDS in prisons: more new developments

Since our last review, there have been new developments in several jurisdictions in the area of HIV/AIDS and prisons. This column reviews some important developments in Canada and in the US: the results of the evaluation of HIV/AIDS harm-reduction measures in the Canadian federal prison system; another Canadian inmate's fight for methadone maintenance treatment in prison; an important article on health care in Canadian prisons which states that there is little evidence that the federal prison system "is making any serious effort to provide treatment to any drug users"; the US Supreme Court's refusal to review a lower court's ruling permitting Alabama prisons to segregate HIV-positive inmates; an important ruling stating that inmates are entitled to receive medications in jail without interruption; and research showing that women inmates in the US are 23 times more likely to have AIDS than women in the general population.