(Oakland) –Reflecting a growing awareness about the urgent situation of HIV/AIDS and other diseases spreading unchecked from prisons to the community at large, the New York Times today published an editorial spotlighting Assemblymember Sandré Swanson’s (D-Oakland) bill to address this very issue. AB 1334, The Inmate and Community Public Health and Safety Act, seeks to halt the spread of serious diseases such as HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C by allowing for the distribution of sexual barrier devices in California’s prisons.

The New York Times editorial, “Fighting AIDS Behind Bars,” points out the public health and safety arguments that have driven Assemblymember Swanson to embrace this fight, stating: “By protecting inmates, the states would also protect the all-too-vulnerable wives and lovers to whom they inevitably return when their sentences are completed.” Also noted is the recommendation by the Centers for Disease Control, which has urged states to implement condom distribution programs in the prisons as a way to prevent the spread of HIV behind bars and in the community at large. The editorial states: “Prison inmates have unprotected sex, despite laws forbidding it and denial by prison officials, which makes prisons prime settings for the spread of deadly blood-borne viruses like hepatitis C and H.I.V.” Mr. Swanson agrees with this assessment, concurring that this issue is not about sex.

The New York Times offers a strongly-worded encouragement to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to sign the bill when it gets to his desk. “…Governor Schwarzenegger should sign the bill. It would give California’s public health community a powerful tool to fight the spread of a deadly disease.

“I am extremely encouraged that more people are seeing that this is about protecting an unsuspecting public from a very serious public health and safety risk. Without programs such as what I am suggesting with AB 1334, prisons become incubators for infectious diseases,” Mr. Swanson stated.

Earlier this year, the California prison healthcare system was placed under federal receivership because it was revealed that the treatment of prisoners’ healthcare needs did not even meet constitutional standards. Under this new management, the Legislature will be exposed to the real costs of not implementing procedures such as allowing the distribution of condoms in California prisons. For example, each HIV-infected inmate costs the state $25,000 per year in health care costs. The entire system was threatened with a federal takeover because of an exploding prison population and escalating costs that could not be contained. AB 1334 offers a positive solution for both of these problems by reducing the spread of disease in the prisons and easing the correlating costs of care.

“Unless the Legislature is brave enough to take decisive steps, the public will bear the ultimate health and financial costs of inaction,” concluded Assemblymember Swanson grimly.