By C1 Staff
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — One of two US states that segregate inmates with HIV from the rest of their prison population will be defending the policy in a trial on Monday.
Inmates living with HIV in Alabama live, eat and have their recreation time apart from the general population in two of 29 dormitories set aside specifically for them, according to Reuters.
The American Civil Liberties Union sued Alabama in 2011 for what they call a discriminatory practice that prevents HIV-positive inmates from participating in rehabilitation and retraining programs important for their success after prison.
The state says the group failed to prove there would be no significant risk of infection being transmitted to other prisoners should those with HIV be fully integrated.
According to ACLU attorney Margaret Winter, advances in HIV treatment infection warranted another look at the practice.
“It is based on an uneducated view on HIV and how it is transmitted, which really goes back to the dark ages of when it first started and there was hysteria,” she said.
Approximately 270 inmates out of the 26,400 in the state prison system has tested positive for the virus, but none has developed AIDS, according to Alabama Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett.