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Today's Los Angeles Times featured a compelling editorialon Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's veto of a bill that would haveauthorized private organizations to distribute condoms in prisons tocurb the spread of HIV.

Condom distribution is a proven means toreduce the spread of HIV, and is already done in many locales(including San Francisco jails). The current ban in California prisonshits black and Latino women especially hard, with the incidence of newHIV cases increasing most rapidly among their ranks.

The Timeseditorial notes that 70% of Californians support condom distribution inprisons. But popular opinion never stops politicians from messingaround with people's lives to score points, especially at the expenseof inarcerated persons -- who are routinely dehumanized by many inSacramento, as they are out of sight and out of mind within our state'scorrections-industrial complex (costing California taxpayers almost $9 BILLION per year and rising exponentially).

It'slatently shameful that Gov. Schwarzenegger did nothing to furtherHIV/AIDS prevention on the 25th anniversary of the epidemic, especiallygiven the fact that he was building a fairly good prevention recordwith his approval of bills authorizing pharmacy sales of syringes andfacilitating syringe exchange (which the Times duly noted).

Whenone looks at the cost of providing condoms, which would not have beenborne by the state of California in this case, with the cost ofproviding a person with HIV/AIDS medication under Medi-Cal, there is noreal choice for those who value the preservation of life and reducingthe toll on the state's coffers.

So what's stopping good policy? The short answer: politics and election-year posturing.

Onehopes that something meaningful can be done in California next year. Ifthe Vatican can consider reassessing its position on condom use tosupport its pro-life ideology, surely those California conservativesagainst condoms in prisons can do the same.

Posted by Nikos Leverenz.
http://www.nooked.com/news/itemtrack...0e3ddc4707238d

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dedbr

Catch 22 situation. I'm pretty sure it's against the rules to have sexual contact of any kind in prison. If they hand out the condoms, are they saying it's all right to have sex as long as you use a condom?

Or are they saying don't have sex, but here's a condom if you decide to?

Arnold signs a law to allow pharmacy sales of needles but he veto's this one. it doesn't seem like the same guy sometimes, does it?

He also recently veto'ed the hemp farming bill. That might have helped his state more than he knew and he blew it off.......


Some Where In Ded Land.........

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JnEverett

Even though hemp is potentially one part of what could be a sustainable future for our planet.
And yet Arnold pushes for alternative fuels and sues auto makers for pollution is California. The guy really makes no sense at all, I think he flips a coin as to how he will vote/veto.