HIV/AIDS

Jeanne Flavin

At the end of 2000, around 2.2% of all state inmates (24,000 people) and 0.8% of all federal inmates (1,000 people) were infected with HIV. Among state and federal inmates, 0.6% and 0.2%, respectively, had AIDS. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), the rate of confirmed AIDS cases among the nation's prison population in 2000 was about four times the rate in the general population of the United States. Thirteen in every 10,000 persons in the United States general population had confirmed AIDS compared to 52 in every 10,000 prison inmates. The human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) does not kill a person directly. Instead, it destroys the immune system and makes people infected with HIV vulnerable to infections that are rarely seen in people with normal immune systems. After a person becomes infected with HIV, it may take years for symptoms to develop. During this latency period, many people ...

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