Prison Sued for HIV Infection

NewsPlanet Staff

SUMMARY: Did an Illinois prison fail in its responsibility to protect
an inmate from being raped and from becoming HIV+? A jury is
deciding...

A jury is expected to take up today the question of whether prison
officials can be held responsible for an inmate's infection with HIV,
in a case that's believed to be the first of its kind. Michael
Blucker, convicted of burglary and car theft, entered the Menard
Correctional Institution in Chester, Illinois in May 1993 and was
paroled in January 1997. He tested negative for HIV in June 1993, but
had seroconverted by the time of another test in late March 1994. He
testified this week that he had been forcibly prostituted by other
inmates, taken from cell to cell to be used for sex in exchange for
cash, marijuana, alcohol, cigarettes, and soap, which were turned over
to a prison gang leader. He also said he was forced to assist in
smuggling drugs into the prison. Blucker's federal lawsuit seeks
unspecified damages from the state Department of Corrections and a
number individual employees at Menard for failing to protect him from
the rapes and the HIV infection.

The Department of Corrections maintains, however, that it was
consensual sex rather than rape that led to Blucker's infection.
There's also a political angle to the case, as Illinois state
Representative Cal Skinner (RCrystal Lake) has for years sought to
segregate HIV+ inmates, an action the Department believes would be an
illegal infringement of the prisoners' civil rights.

One issue is whether prison employees were even aware that Blucker was

being assaulted, as he maintains. There is no question that in the
spring of 1994 his wife was sending letters to officials outside the
prison seeking an end to the sexual assaults. But although a prison
librarian believed Blucker to be suicidal in October 1993, Menard's
theninternal affairs unit chief and current defendant Lt. Carl
Caraway testified August 27 that when he followed up on the
librarian's report by interviewing Blucker, the inmate told him he was
engaging in sex voluntarily and was mostly concerned about the drug
smuggling situation. Caraway says Blucker refused at that time to give
any names of prisoners involved or to cooperate in an investigation.
Caraway also testified that in a later interview in response to
Blucker's wife's letters, Blucker indicated that most of the issues
had already been resolved. Blucker was then moved into protective
custody.

At the same time, the testimony of 14 prison staff on August 27 also
hinted at considerable indifference to Blucker's situation. After the
late 1993 interview, Caraway referred Blucker to a prison social
worker who referred him to a prison doctor. Doctor Nageswararao
Vallabhaneni testified that he had noted "reported sexual abuse" in
Blucker's file, but did no more to notify others because he believed
they already knew about it. When Blucker resisted efforts to move him
from his cell in November 1993, he said at a disciplinary hearing that
"it would be extremely dangerous for me to move," but apparently no
one on the threemember panel went on to ask about the nature of the
threat. This week, Blucker testified that the cellmate who pimped him
would have had him attacked by other prison gang members had he moved.