HIV/AIDS in the prison system- Judith Albert

As Dr. White informed us at our most recent meeting, prisons are extremely high-risk environments for HIV transmission. To our surprise, there were no condom distribution in place in the system because that would mean acknowledging that sexual encounter does occur and would offer an opportunity for illicit drug use by hiding in them the illicit material.
I was surprised by the lack of realism expressed by prison authorities in this respect. First of all, my surprise was that out of two evils to prevent, the prison officials chose the least deadly one: drug use. It is known that there are plenty of other ways to prevent illicit drug use other than not distributing possible hiding places for them (e.g. condoms), but there are no other avenues to prevent the sexual spread of HIV.

I was browsing public-health related information on the web on my home country, Romania, with the hopes to do a summer project there when I came across the World Health Organization's project proposal to prevent HIV spread in the prisons of Europe. This is the web-link to the project:

http://www.euro.who.int/Governance/resolutions/2002/20021231_4

I highly recommend looking at this report, it provides a lot of information on HIV/AIDS related projects in the EU Council.

Also, I have found here the joint proposal of the WHO and UNAIDS for HIV/AIDS Prevention,
Care, Treatment and Support in Prison Settings. To my understanding, this proposal is not only for EU countries but for all nations.
Among the many proposals are the following two recommendations:

‘Recognize that consensual sexual activity occurs in prisons, and ensure that consensual

sexual activity is not penalised as this will discourage prisoners accessing

condoms.’

‘Ensure the measures available outside of prisons to prevent transmission of HIV

through the exchange of bodily fluids are also available in prisons. This should

include providing access to the full range of prevention commodities to prevent HIV

transmission through unsafe sex, needle sharing, unsafe tattooing, and joint use of

razors in those countries where these measures are available in the outside community,

e.g., condoms, sterile needles and syringes, razor blades and sterile tattooing

equipment. HIV prevention measures should be accessible in a confidential and

non-discriminatory fashion.’

Hence, there is a general understanding at the international level of HIV spread through unsafe sexual encounters in the prisons. I wonder why our prison system fails to acknowledge that. I also wonder whether this is only the case in our state or other states as well?