LA TIMES Covers Health Justice's Condom Distribution Program

Monday's Los Angeles Times carried a story about the distribution of condoms in Los Angeles County jails by the Center for Health Justice:

Inmates call Ron Osorio "West Hollywood" because the words are printed on the cream-colored cloth bag he carries inside Men's Central Jail each Friday.

The bag is filled with 300 Lifestyle condoms. Osorio, who works for the nonprofit Center for Health Justice, has been visiting the jail almost weekly since 2001, when Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca approved a small but groundbreaking program that allowed the health group to pass out prophylactics to inmates in a segregated unit for gay men.

"We go to the dorms and a guy hands out the bagged lunches. There's another guy that hands out the juice. . . . and I stand between those two as they go through the line. They get their lunch, they get a condom, and they get their juice," Osorio said.
[...]
Eight years after Baca first approved the program, the sheriff is pondering whether to expand it by doubling the number of condoms distributed to the 300 inmates within the segregated unit.

His decision comes as a yearlong pilot condom distribution program at the California State Prison at Solano enters its eighth month.

Health advocates say that a successful review of that program could lead to widespread distribution of condoms in prisons throughout the state.

It would be one of the most aggressive measures in the nation's jails and prisons to curb the spread of HIV/AIDS, experts say.

Sheriff's officials acknowledge that the virus is a prominent problem in the jails.

They spend about $2 million each year in federally refundable money on HIV/AIDS medication and identify about 65 new cases each month.

On average there are about 1,400 people in L.A. County jails with HIV each year, said Steve Whitmore, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Department.

Great coverage for the great work that Center for Health Justice does (MadProfessah is Board President of the agency).