CONTROL PRISON EPIDEMIC

An attorney for a death-row inmate is threatening to file a class-action
lawsuit against the Colorado Department of Corrections, claiming that
hepatitis C is running rampant within prison walls and officials are doing
little or nothing to provide much-needed treatment.

On the other side of the issue, state prison medical personnel say those
who need and can benefit from treatment are receiving it. Those whose
condition is too advanced are not, but that is because it wouldn't make a
difference in the late stages. The department also has asked for liver
transplants for three inmates, which shows it is doing what's possible to
provide treatment.

One side says the problem is so severe that about 40 percent of the inmate
population is infected. The other says it's more like 17 percent of
Colorado's 17,000 inmates.

Regardless of who has the accurate facts, the point is that the rate of
infection in prison is higher than in the general population. Obviously,
there is a problem with hepatitis C in the Department of Corrections.

Taxpayers - who will be affected if a lawsuit is filed - would benefit from
a study by a neutral party to determine how widespread the disease is among
the prison population.

In addition, corrections staffs must do a better job of keeping needles out
of the hands of inmates.

Although an estimated 17 percent of inmates enter the system already
infected with hepatitis C, it is believed that many more contract the
disease in prison. Dirty needles are the chief cause.

There is no cure for hepatitis C, and drug therapy works for only about
half of the patients who receive it.

Although intravenous drug use and tattooing are undoubtedly prohibited in
prison, such activities occur. Hepatitis C also can be spread by sexual
contact.

But hepatitis C is not easy to catch. Blood fluids must intermingle, which
leads us to believe that if contracting the disease in prison is a problem
of epidemic proportions, the Department of Corrections is understaffed,
underfunded or just plain remiss in enforcing its rules.

In addition to finding out how many people actually have the disease and
who is getting treatment, the state also should determine how effective the
prison system is at controlling substance abuse, tattooing and sexual
contact behind bars.