420

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

More...