Do the Needs of the Many Outweigh the Needs of the Few?

Does Leonard Nimoy's famous quote (the titile of this blog) from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, apply to people living with HIV in the prisons of two southern states? Not according to the American Civil Liberties Union, who has brought a class action suit against the Alabama Corrections Department where HIV+ inmates are isolated from the general prison population. South Carolina is the other state with the same policy. In Alabama, inmates are tested for HIV when they enter prison. HIV+ men and women are housed in special dormitories; eat alone (not in the cafeteria); cannot hold jobs around food; and have to wear white armbands that identify them as being HIV+. The policy is designed to to limit the spread of HIV through consenual sex, rape, or when inmates tatoo each other, even though most medical experts say that isolation is unnecessary. It is also counterituiative to treat HIV differently than other, more rampant, viruses such as Hepatitus C and B. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics there were a little over 20,000 inmates in state and federal prisons in the U.S. at the end of 2010. The rate of HIV/AIDS among state and federal prison inmates declined from 194 cases per 10,000 inmates in 2001 to 146 per 10,000 at year end 2010. A study, published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2006 found that although male prisoners have a relatively high rate of HIV infection, very few of them acquire the virus while behind bars. For example, about 90 percent of HIV-positive men in Georgia's prison system -- the nation's fifth largest -- were infected before they arrived, the study found. Over a 17-year period, 88 men became infected in prison by the virus that causes AIDS, chiefly through same-sex intercourse. Therefore, if there is a declining number of HIV+ inmates in prison, and if few acquire it there anyway, why the draconian policies in Alabama and South Carolina? Sadly, the answer has as much to do with our own attitudes about HIV/AIDS as it does with those two prison systems. There is not a lot of sympathy about the incarcerated in general and certainly even less for those infected with HIV. The point missed here is that treating HIV+ prisoners as lepers only exacerbates their shame and disgrace at being incarcerated. It also continues to foster the stigma that drives HIV underground and prevents people from getting tested. As a society, we should criticize any excessive policy that limits the rights of human beings to live in basic dignity. If not, we too might find ourselves on that 'slippery slope.'