NEW YORK -- Several investigations worldwide have shown that the human immunodeficiency virus responsible for AIDS is spreading rapidly in prisons, where the rate of infection has been found to be several times higher than in the general population. Prisons have become one of the most potentially dangerous incubators of the epidemic. If new and more effective measures are not put into effect, it is not only prisoners who will be at risk. Prison staff and members of the communities to which the prisoners belong will also be affected.
In the United States in 1994, the incidence of AIDS in places of detention was nearly six times higher than that occurring in the general population. In French prisons, the incidence of HIV-infected prisoners is roughly 10 times that of the general population. In Canada, the number of federal inmates known to be living with HIV or AIDS increased 100 percent between 1994 and 1999. In Brazil and Argentina, the rates of HIV infection of prisoners are also several times higher than in the general population.
Women inmates pose a particularly serious problem, since in many countries incarceration rates are rising faster for women than for men, and women in prisons are more likely to be drug users than are male prisoners. Economic dependence, unsafe sexual practices (such as exchanging sex for drugs or money), and intravenous drug use place women at serious risk for HIV/AIDS.