HIV/AIDS IN SOUTH AFRICA’S PRISONS:
REVIEWING OUR POLICY OPTION

18 February 2003

The impact of HIV/AIDS on prisoners is most visible in the rising number of deaths in prison each year. Effective policy responses are essential, for the simple reason that prison health is public health. Every month, at least 20,000 people are released from prison – and most return to the marginalised communities they came from with worsening illnesses and continuing high risk behaviours. Across the world, rates of disease and infection in prisons are much higher than in society as a whole. In South Africa, the prison environment is ideal for reaching high risk groups for contracting HIV/AIDS because for many held there, this will be their most extensive exposure to public services of any kind.

This seminar will comment on current policy and practice in South Africa’s prisons regarding: prison health care, nutrition, testing, segregation, the distribution of condoms, lubricant and bleach, education, and early release. Recommendations will be discussed based on international lessons and a detailed case study of the Department of Correctional Services’ response in Westville Medium B prison in KwaZulu-Natal.

Speaker:

KC Goyer has been a research consultant for the Crime and Justice Programme at the ISS since 2001, where her work has covered private prisons and HIV/AIDS policy in prisons. She also worked with the Health Economics and HIV/AIDS Research Division (HEARD) at the University of Natal, Durban. KC is currently pursuing a Juris Doctor degree at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC.

Copies of the recently released ISS monograph, HIV/AIDS in prison
problems, policies and potential by KC Goyer, will be distributed at the seminar.

Date: Tuesday 18 February 2003
Time: 10h30 – 12h00 (light lunch served afterwards)
Venue: ISS, Brooklyn Court, Block C, Bronkhorst Street, Pretoria
RSVP: Ms Bilkis Omar at e-mail:

tel.: (012) 346-9500 or fax (012) 460-0997/8


Presentation available in Powerpoint