The Department of Correctional Services has reached an out-of-court settlement after a seven-year legal battle with a former inmate who sued the department after becoming infected with HIV while in jail.
The settlement came just before the department’s nine provincial HIV/Aids coordinators met from Monday February 17 to discuss implementing the department’s long-awaited policy on Aids.
The details of the settlement will remain confidential in terms of the Cape High Court order, but both correctional services spokesperson Luzuko Jacobs and the claimant’s lawyer confirmed the settlement. Sources, however, said the prisoner claimed R1,1-million, but is believed to have settled for R150 000.
The correctional services department had opposed the lawsuit after the man, who cannot be named, said in court papers he was infected during a 13-month stint in Pollsmoor prison. A fellow inmate repeatedly approached him for sex; he did not know the inmate was HIV-positive. The man maintains the department knew prisoners are raped or have sex in jails, but failed to act to protect inmates.
The correctional services department’s approach to HIV/Aids has been bedevilled by numerous hiccups, and its policy has been a long time in the making. A 1996 policy that condoms would be made available only on request through a nurse was ineffective because few inmates took advantage of the offer and because of the limited medical staff in jails.
Since then the department has sponsored conferences, workshops and symposiums as well as consultations with NGOs. Last February Minister of Correctional Services Ben Skosana announced that an HIV/Aids policy would be in place by the end of the year.
The policy was approved in October and signed off by correctional services commissioner Linda Mti. Nine provincial HIV/Aids coordinators were appointed.
The policy stipulates that condoms must be ”easily accessible to prisoners and personnel at all times and in all prisons”. The number of condoms distributed must be monitored.
It also provides for wide-ranging educational and awareness programmes on HIV/Aids, sexually transmitted infections, rape and coerced sex in jails, and life skills training among prisoners and staff. Prisons are required to implement their own HIV/Aids programmes with the participation of local communities.
Voluntary, confidential testing and seeking early treatment of sexually transmitted infections is encouraged. But the policy rejects mandatory testing and the segregation of HIV-positive prisoners. It specifically states that HIV-positive inmates must have equal access to workshops and work areas, such as farms.
Though the policy outlines detailed steps to deal with risks of transmission of HIV, hepatitis and other blood-borne infectious diseases, ranging from needle-stick injuries to soiled laundry, it requires that warders must be sensitised to the dangers of becoming HIV-infected while ”disarming fighting prisoners”. It says warders ”should be provided with protective clothing comprising gloves, aprons and face shields”.
HIV infection among South Africa’s prison population of about 179 000 in 241 jails became a controversial issue last May, after the parliamentary correctional services committee was told that most of the 1 169 natural deaths in jail were HIV/Aids-related and that about 60% of inmates were infected with HIV.
The department rejected the figures because they were based on a small number of samples at one prison. But it admitted that its own research, based on voluntary testing among ill inmates, had come up with ”an unrealistically low” 3% infection rate.