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Compiled by GayToday
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Washington, D.C.—The U.S. Supreme Court, soon to consider an appeal from prisoners in an Alabama HIV discrimination case, has been urged by the Clinton administration not to hear the 15 year old case.
If won, the case would overturn current state prison rules denying access to hundreds of HIV infected inmates who are forbidden to take part in the prison system's 70-odd religious, educational and recreational programs. |
 The Clinton Administration opposes Lambda Legal's efforts to win rights for HIV-positive prisoners in a case that could go before the Supreme Court |
The appeal, filed by the Lambda Legal and Defense and Education Fund, argues that inmates with
HIV do not pose a "significant risk" to their fellows.
Lambda has been joined by a coalition of public health organizations and AIDS specialists. The organizations believe that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit relied on "subjective fear and stigma" rather than the scientific risk assessment that the Supreme Court insisted upon in a 1998 suit brought by an HIV positive woman against a dentist who had refused to treat her.
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The Administration filed its objections to the prisoners' appeal at the request of the high court. Seth P.
Waxman, the solicitor general, admitted to the justices that the appeals court's ruling may have
been "overbroad" inasmuch as inmates involved in activities such as religious services, data processing training, and high school equivalency classes were not likely to pass along the virus.
But though the appeals court decision may have been questionable in its particulars, said Waxman, it was
right in the assessment of risks, inasmuch as violence generally permeates prison life.
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Only Alabama, Mississippi, and South Carolina segregate HIV positive inmates. Alabama defends
its policy by pointing to a very low rate of HIV transmissions in comparison with non-segregated
states. Over a period of eight years, and in a prison population of 30,000, say state officials,
only two persons have become infected with the virus while in prison.
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