The Department of Correctional Services is in the dock over its treatment of HIV-positive inmates Marianne Merten and Aaron Madadasane A man who contracted HIV while incarcerated in Pollsmoor prison six years ago is suing the minister of correctional services in the Cape High Court. The Department of Correctional Services said this week it was fighting the pending lawsuit, which was initiated three years ago. If the case goes to trial it will test whether the department honoured clauses in its governing legislation obliging it to protect inmates – and whether the department has erred in not acting against the increasing incidence of rape among prisoners, and the corresponding surge of HIV infections in South Africa’s jails. The claimant, whose identity cannot be revealed, says he was infected by another inmate who had repeatedly approached him for sex during a 13-month spell at the jail. He did not know the fellow prisoner was HIV-positive. The claimant says in court papers correctional services knows prisoners are raped or have sex in jails and that a proportion of inmates are HIV-positive, yet officials fail to act. The case spotlights the government’s legal and moral vulnerability where the spread of the virus in prisons is concerned.
In the same prison, Pollsmoor, an HIV- positive awaiting- trial prisoner claims authorities have ignored his ailment, taking him off a special diet prescribed at another prison, and are now prescribing tablets which make him ill. His HIV status is widely known among inmates and warders. “Others in here just talk about it. I try to educate them, but they say: ‘No, you don’t have rights,'” he said. “I was tested a year ago in jail. The result came back positive. I said ‘no’. I was tested again. It was positive. I was again tested when I came here [Pollsmoor],” said the man, who has been waiting for the finalisation of his murder trial for two years and three months. “I am suffering. I can’t eat the food here. I have to buy bread and salt.” The awaiting-trial prisoner is one of the 2E700 known HIV- positive inmates among South Africa’s prison population of 172E000, according to correctional services statistics.
Eight of about 300 HIV-positive inmates in the Western Cape are juveniles. But these statistics are not a true reflection of the rate of HIV/Aids infection in jails. The department stopped random testing without consent or counselling and the segregation of HIV-positive inmates some years ago to comply with various non-discrimination laws. Prisoners say HIV status can be used as a means to assert power and obtain favours through the threat of rape, while some prison gangs practise sodomy as part of their culture. Infection is also spread through sharing needles used for tattooing gang members. Often warders are too afraid to deal with HIV-positive
inmates because of a lack of awareness or prejudice.
Prison doctors see only a small proportion of the rape survivors because of feelings of shame or threats of further violence.
Yet for some inmates, being diagnosed HIV- positive has been a life-changing experience; at least two prisoners at Pollsmoor prison have taken up leadership positions in different sections of the jail. Correctional services is aware of concerns around HIV and Aids. It is high on the agenda of next week’s national symposium organised by the department and was one of the issues discussed at the conference on the role of social workers in prisons in the Cape this week.
But because of the structure of the department – “Everything must go through Pretoria,” said several sources – little action is taken at prison level. Aids Law Project paralegal Teboho Kekana said the policy worked on paper, but its implementation has been poor. Little was done to draw in experienced HIV/Aids trainers. The initial 1996 policy that condoms should be issued to prisoners on request by a qualified nurse was amended because few inmates came forward. Now condom machines and pamphlets are placed in strategic places throughout jails. Correctional services liaison official Russel Mamabolo said prisons should provide condoms and HIV/Aids education for inmates, but admitted the policy needed to be “fine-tuned”.