IS WAR ON DRUGS CREATING HIV EPIDEMIC IN AMERICA?

SANFORD - America's "war on drugs" may have sponsored an epidemic within an
epidemic, according to Dr. David Alain Wohl of the University of North
Carolina AIDS Research and Treatment Center.

Speaking to health, corrections and social workers during a roundtable
discussion Thursday about HIV/AIDS in the nation's prisons and jails, Wohl
said some people become infected with HIV after they are incarcerated, but
most come into jail or prison with the virus active in their bodies.

"In 1996, one in five HIV-infected people came through jail or prison,"
Wohl said. He added the HIV infection rate for prison inmates is 5.5 times
higher than it is in general population - a result of increased arrests of
people with a history of substance abuse.

Health officials have missed incredible opportunities to screen, treat and
counsel infected people as they were processed through city and county
jails, and the state's prisons, he said. Because of the numbers involved,
Wohl said action needs to be taken to change the state and local approach
to health care for those in the system.

"There are now 6.5 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons in
America. We have the largest prison population on the planet - more than
China. And, the rate is increasing every year," Wohl said, displaying
graphs illustrating that black males are "disproportionately" arrested and
sentenced.

"If one wanted to create a perfect system to lock up black males - we've
almost done that," Wohl said, adding "Nine percent of the black male
population is incarcerated.

"When you target men in a specific community, what happens to the community
back home? It creates disruptions for the women who are left behind," he
said, noting the likelihood of replacement sex partners and the particular
risk of HIV exposure after inmates return to the community. "These social
disruptions are at a cost that was unforeseen. Simply having a partner in
prison increases the opportunity for exposure."

Wohl, who works with the state's three prison HIV clinics, said almost
every inmate released from prison has two priorities - to eat at McDonald's
and then to have sex - "often within an hour of release."

"People don't stay in prison forever. In North Carolina, men average about
three years and women about six months. The person in prison today could be
sitting next to you on the bus tomorrow," Wohl said.

HIV is "dangerously concentrated" in the nation's prisons, Wohl said, but
there has been little increase in the amount of drug treatment funding
available for prisoners.

To address the problem, Wohl said corrections officers, social workers and
health care providers should drastically increase efforts to screen
incarcerated people for HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases such as
hepatitis, and provide appropriate health care for those infected along
with transmission-risk education in prisons and "more paternal" discharge
plans for those being released from custody.

"And, we need to re-think this war on drugs and decide if we can afford
it," he said, adding that slogans like "three strikes and your out" and
"get tough on crime" may sound good as part of political campaigns, but may
ultimately erode quality of life in this country.