Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s political courage clearly failed him when he vetoed a bill that would have permitted the distribution of condoms in California’s AIDS-ravaged prisons. At the same time, the governor ordered up a pilot distribution program for one as-yet unnamed prison. A small, exploratory program falls far short of the mass distribution effort that the system clearly needs.
Public health officials around the world have long realized that condom distribution is central to any meaningful AIDS-prevention effort. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention made that point last year when it urged states to consider starting condom programs in prisons. Programs are already up and running in Canada and much of the European Union, as well as in jails in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington and New York.
Mr. Schwarzenegger said he vetoed the bill because it conflicts with state law that makes sexual contact among inmates illegal. That’s self-defeating and a denial of the reality of life behind bars, and the governor seems to know it. His veto statement acknowledged that condom distribution represents a reasonable “public policy, and it is consistent with the need to improve our prison health care system and overall public health.”
The governor should have gone with what he knows and signed this bill. His pilot program needs to get under way quickly and should be expanded as soon as possible. That’s the only way to improve California’s prison health care system and overall public health.
In addition, the imperious AIDS Healthcare Foundation has also condemned the Governor's action in a press release.
The Sacramento Bee ran an article on the burgeoning controversy over the Governor's veto message in which he endorsed the concept of condom distribution in prison as an HIV prevention measure and suggested a pilot program to determine efficacy and effectiveness. Of course, as the New York Times noted in its editorial, condoms have been distributed in prisons and jails all over the world for years.
Swanson said the pilot-only project works for him.
"I think this is an extremely positive move forward," the assemblyman said. "The project is going to demonstrate that we can reduce the spread of these sexually transmitted diseases and that our prisons will no longer be considered a place where these diseases can incubate."
While prison sex may be against the law, it's pretty much a part of the fabric of incarcerated life, according to one former inmate who now runs an acclaimed residential program for parolees.
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Otherwise, the banned acts between consenting prisoners can add a year to an inmate's time if they get caught. Schwarzenegger's consequent approval of them, even on a pilot basis, has served to befuddle the California Family Council, a nonprofit group formed "to protect and foster Judeo-Christian principles in California's laws, for the benefit of its families," according to its Web site.
"He's talking out of both sides of his mouth," said Lynne Fishel, a spokeswoman for the group, which registered its opposition to the Swanson bill in the Legislature. "He acknowledges that it's illegal, but he wants to put a pilot project in one prison? I don't understand the logic. I can't connect the dots."
The California Correctional Supervisors Organization opposed the legislation, citing concerns of inmates using condoms to hide drugs in their rectal cavities. Spokesman Ford Canutt said inmates also use balloons, condoms and plain old cellophane to conceal stabbing devices.
"Anything that circumvents security, we have a problem with," Canutt said.
Canutt said the CCSO might be OK with a pilot project, however, at a minimum-security prison, or at an inmate fire camp.
Besides the 33 state prisons, California's Penal Code also bans sex "in any local detention facility." But that hasn't stopped San Francisco from making prophylactics available to its inmates for the past 20 years. They even put a condom machine in the recreation room a few months ago, without ever having a problem, according to Sheriff Mike Hennessey.
"We've never had an inmate caught using a condom to hide contraband, we've never had an inmate use a condom as a weapon, to strangle someone or suffocate someone, and we've never had an incident of sexual assault where a condom was used," Hennessey said. "The fears about bad things happening if you allow condoms in prison, they just haven't happened."
Another question to ask would be why is it constitutional to ban consensual sex between adults in any setting in the United States?
Mad Professah salutes Sheriff Hennessey for speaking truth to power and discounting the ridiculous argument by the CCSO that condoms will be used as weapons or to smuggle weapons or contraband. The prisoners seem to already have lots of weapons and condoms already, don't they? Where do you think prisoners get that stuff? Not from other prisoners, but from people who have access to the outside of the prison, i.e. prison employees.
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