Posted on 11/22/2007 9:57:26 AM PST by Zakeet
NEW YORK - To activists concerned about AIDS and prisoners' rights, it's an urgent, commonsense step that should already be nationwide policy — letting inmates have condoms to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases behind bars.
Yet their efforts have run headlong into a stronger political force: Authorities' desire not to encourage inmates who flout prison rules against sex. Only one state, Vermont, and five cities regularly hand out condoms to inmates. Mississippi does so only for inmates receiving conjugal visits from their spouses.
Left out are the vast majority of America's 2.2 million prisoners — many held in facilities where sex between men is common and the risk of STDs is far higher than in the general population.
"I realize this is not a comfortable topic for many people, but it's one we simply cannot afford to ignore," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif. "When more than 90 percent of incarcerated people return to our communities, taking a head-in-the-sand approach to the fact that our prisons have become a breeding ground for HIV/AIDS poses a serious public health risk."
Despite such warnings, recent efforts to expand behind-bars condom access have gone almost nowhere. Prison officials contend that condoms can be used to conceal drugs, and law-and-order politicians scoff at what they depict as a step that would encourage both consensual and coercive sex.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Advocate Ron Snyder poses for a photo with a condom outside the Men's Central Jail
downtown Los Angeles, Thursday, Nov. 15, 2007. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's
Department distributes condoms to the gay and transgender prisoners in an effort to
curb sexually-transmitted diseases.
Why do they need condoms? Are there are women in prison with them?
/s
Is there a saltpeter shortage?
Of course they would use them out of a human regard for the welfare of their cellmates. It’s not like they’d deliberately ‘pump death’ to another person. /sarc
"Glenn Goord, New York State's former corrections commissioner, told the Legislature that inmates use condoms to transport drugs within prison grounds. He also said condoms might embolden prison rapists, who could use them to avoid leaving DNA evidence after their assaults."
OK... The prison authorities state that sex in the institution is forbidden, condoms would be used to smuggle and hide contraband, and rapists would use them to prevent leaving DNA evidence on their victims. These are specific and valid reasons for forbid condom distribution in the prisons.
The activists say:"Though activists are convinced condom access would reduce STD transmission, they are cautious in making specific health claims."
I bet the liberal activists win this one.
Funny comments. See what you think if you ever end up in a prison - even by accident. Talk to Christian men who have made mistakes and ended up there. It is a fact of prison life. Lifers could give a squat about what anyone else cares, or if they are given HIV/Hep C.
Three hots and a cot. Nothing more.
No need.
At the risk of souding insensitive:
1. We should not provide condoms for prison inmates.
2. We should not provide syringes and needles to drug addicts.
3. We should not pay or feed people who are capable of working, but refuse to work.
The main cause of transfer of diseases like AIDS in the prison system is tattoos. How about combating that, rather than giving passive acceptance to rape?
Something tells me there is a secret jailhouse recipe floating around for latex condoms? /h
Aside from that, there is no excuse for us to treat prisoners inhumanely. A prisoner should be deprived of his freedoms, but should not have to fear for his life (at least at the hands of other prisoners) or safety while incarcerated.
Give them cast-iron chastity belts if it stops prison rape.
Correct. And if it’s “insensitive” to suggest these things, then how much more insensitive is it to prey on society so as to become a prisoner, to indulge yourself to the point you become a drug addict, and to refuse to carry any responsibility for your own survival? If anyone is “insensitive,” it’s the inmates, the addicts, and the mooches, not you.
How silly can an article be.
Link please. /sarc
Yet for those who actually need condoms for reasons other than avioding pregnancy, the left cries "No, they must abstain", "there are rules against them having sex", "giving out condoms will single out those who are having sex and subject them to ridicule"
Leftists are the most ridiculous creatures on the planet.
Common(sense)
UGH! The two words, errrr one word used most often by the looney left and the word(s) that turn me off the quickest. That must be the most used word(s) in the liberal play book. Anything and everything the left propounds is preceded by these word(s).
Just another thing to make my head explode, hehehehe!
Oh wait......
“Talk to Christian men who have made mistakes and ended up there.”
Oh, you mean criminals? Just because they might have been “Christians” does not turn turn their crime into a “mistake”. And I wonder how many became good Christians only when they were finally in a courtroom? I have no more sympathy for them than I do an athiest who ends up in prison. But the next time a Christian murderer is paroled, feel free to invite him to stay at your place.
Hardened convicts can be rented out to farms in need of workers, or for menial, dirty or dangerous jobs. For nonviolent first time offenders, they can work in hospitals, nursing homes or as caregivers to the elderly or handicapped and with minimal supervision. In exchange, prisoners would receive better food, housing, conjugal visits and a chance to reduce their sentences.
sarc?
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