Alabama and South Carolina are the only states where HIV-positive inmates are isolated from other prisoners. But now the policy is being challenged by the American Civil Liberties Union –Â and Federal Judge Myron H. Thompson of the Middle District of Alabama – will rule on its legality before Thanksgiving.
Alabama’s Corrections Department says that the goal is to stop the spread of the virus through consensual sex, rape or through blood when inmates give one another tattoos.
Living in the dorms for HIV-positive inmates has its perks including air conditioning and a private cell, but inmates eat alone, not in the cafeteria. They wear white plastic armbands identifying them as HIV-positive and cannot hold jobs around food.
“We feel like lepers,” one HIV-positive man told the New York Times.
Read the whole story at the New York Times.