Better Care for Prisoners

Flaunting a banner that read "Corcoran = Death for Prisoners with HIV/AIDS, Shut It Down!," hundreds of prisoner advocates in October protested inhumane conditions, including brutality, beatings, and serious medical neglect of inmates with HIV and AIDS, at California state prisons. The action began with a "Caravan for Prisoner's Human Rights" that ended in front of Corcoran maximum-security state prison, considered the most barbaric institution in California. Corcoran also houses, in specially segregated units, more than 230 HIV-positive men who face discrimination and bias as well as violence. Since 1989, there have been more fatal shootings of prisoners at Corcoran than at all the other prisons in the country combined. The protest took place a week after five Corcoran guards were indicted for their role in a prison rape.

At rallies held at Corcoran and the world's largest women's prison, Central California Women's Facility in Chowchilla (CCWF), speakers also highlighted the stark conditions facing HIV-positive women prisoners, who must wait up to 45 days to see a doctor for serious health problems and are denied overnight visits with their spouses, work releases, and access to mother-infant care programs. A class-action lawsuit has been launched on their behalf.

"We cannot see you but we know you are rallying for us all and your support is so welcome and needed!" wrote Beverly Henry, an HIV-positive prisoner at CCWF, in a statement read to the crowd. "Being HIV/AIDS in prison and having to put up with the callousness of medical staff is the toughest sentence any judge could hand down."

-Judy Greenspan