AIDS education and incarcerated women: a neglected opportunity

Attitudes and perceptions about health, AIDS, and the need for AIDS education were explored among inmates in a women's prison in the southeastern U.S. Forty short-term inmates participated in a series of focus group interviews. A separate sample of sixteen women completed a 103-item questionnaire. Focus group participants expressed concern about AIDS within prison, sexual activity between inmates, and the institution's policy of housing seropositive women with the general inmate population. Close to half (44%) of the survey respondents believe that they were likely to be exposed to HIV in prison; most (81%) felt that AIDS education programs should discuss female homosexual activity, and nearly all respondents (94%) felt that inmates should be given an HIV antibody test upon entering prison. The study's findings confirm the need for tailoring AIDS education and prevention activities for incarcerated women.