Gaye Davis
CONDOMS should be distributed to prisoners and those with HIV or Aids should no longer be segregated, a special work group investigating health care in South African jails has recommended.
The Department of Correctional Services has always ruled out condoms for inmates on the grounds that this would encourage sodomy, which is illegal in South Africa.
In a report released this week, the work group, comprising prison health officers, health care professionals and commissioned by the commissioner of correctional services, said its recommendations on HIV/Aids should be implemented as soon as possible. These include education — for staff as well as prisoners, counselling and guaranteed confidentiality of a prisoner’s HIV/Aids status.
The report says the Correctional Services Act and prison regulations should be changed to entrench prisoners’ rights to health care, set new standards and accommodate the work group’s recommendation. These include “demilitarising” prisons’ medical staff and making them independent of the control of disciplinary staff, screeening for turberculosis, psychiatric disorders, assessing suicide risk, greater access to doctors and medically supervised detoxification.