I'm the last one to jump at a defense of the Clinton's, but this seems to go to far. Nobody was testing for HIV then ( as far as I know) and I'm all for a prison system making a buck on the back of the inmates. Crap, I can't believe I am doing this. Now I feel dirty all over.
IIRC, the larger problem was hepatitis, which was screened for at the time, but doesn't make as splashy a headline. Also, I think that some HIV testing had gone into place before this practice ended.
The prison plasma spread a substantially higher incidence of Hepatitis C than AIDS. Hep C is also incurable and potentially fatal. It wrecks people's lives even if it doesn't kill.
Now go wash out your mouth :-)
IIRC the system did not profit, it was FOBs. I don't have time to research it now.
Look I have a hemopheliac son who contracted Hep C from this bad blood. YES they were testing back then and they KNEW it was contaminated. The Candian Red Cross was WARNED that it was tainted and used it anyway to save money. As for Aids, back then it was called GRID. Gay Related Infectious Disease. The gay lobby in the US was so strong that they THREATENED the then government that if they didn't change the name of GRID to something else, they would POLLUTE the blood supply DELIBERATELY. You should read the book "The Aids Coverup"!!
My son is a factor 9 Hemopheliac and the Factor IX's did much better than the Factor 8's. 80% of the Factor 8 Hemopheliacs are co-infected with Hep C and HIV!! Clinton was at the very heart of this scandal as he was Governor of Arkansas at the time and he ran an end pass around the law to allow the Arkansas Prisoners blood to be SOLD.
Although my son has never had an liver problems and his liver remains normal (thank God he does not drink) but it is like sitting on a ticking time bomb. It is called the Silent Killer. In our home WE TRUST GOD for his protection. His positive status for Hep C is subject to change!!
I don't remember when the test was developed to detect HIV in blood, but at least by 1984 the Red Cross knew enough to try to screen out high-risk types. The company that sold this blood in Canada did so precisely because it had become difficult to sell such blood in the US.