LOVE PUSHES HEPATITIS VACCINE FOR INMATES

CHARLESTON - Sen. Shirley Love, D-Fayette, renewed his pitch Sunday to
provide West Virginia's prison population with vaccine against two forms of
hepatitis - A and B.

Love, chairman of the Legislative Oversight Committee on Regional Jail and
Correctional Facility Authority, suggested the state could save huge sums
by innoculating inmates as opposed to treating them after they contract the
infection.

"It seems like a no-brainer," Love told Dr. Roy White, an official of
Correctional Medical Services, after learning 44 of the 890 inmates at
Mount Olive Correctional Complex have hepatitis C.

"Isn't it better to spend $80 for the vaccine than $800 treating an
inmate?" Love asked. "It seems the vaccine would be much more cost-effective."

At an earlier meeting in June, the senator, who represents the 11th
District, where Mount Olive is located, pointed out that grants are
provided by some private sector sources for such vaccine.

Love and fellow members of the panel toured the maximum-security prison
last March in an unannounced inspection and heard many inmates say
hepatitis is a common disorder among the population.

"If you want us to innoculate them for A and B, we'll do that," White pledged.

Lawmakers were told shared drug needles, underground tattoo parlors and sex
are common conduits, although hepatitis cannot be contracted by normal
contact among inmates.

"Is there any reason why we have to let them keep tattooing each other?"
asked Del. Margarette Leach, D-Cabell, a nurse.

White said inmates will find ways to provide tattoos, even with the best
detection by correctional officers.

Lawmakers learned that hepatitis C often doesn't cause any problems until
two decades later and treatment can be nearly as bad as the disorder itself.

"They want the magic pill," White told the panel, "but it isn't there."

In other matters, a lengthy report compiled by Carol Sharlip of American
Friends Service Committee showing minorities are arrested, tried as adults
and convicted in a much greater percentage than the predominant white race
in West Virginia was advanced to the panel.

And Corrections Commissioner Jim Rubenstein informed the panel that even
with double bunking to relieve congestion at regional and county jails, 634
inmates await transfer to prison.

"We've not been able to keep pace wih the significant growth in
commitment," he said.