24-11-09 Policy brief and technical paper recommends that scaling up of HIV prevention must include prisons and other closed settings

It suggests, amongst other things, improved access to condoms, sterile injection equipment, other harm reduction interventions and the uninterrupted provision of antiretroviral therapy. The briefing paper makes it clear that if these treatments are available in the community then they should be available in prisons too. To help achieve this the policy brief makes a number of recommendations regarding prison systems including better access to evidence-based HIV prevention. 

The paper calls for a sustained effort to improve access to both HIV care and to better health care in prisons generally. The paper acknowledges the inadequacy of this in most prison systems, despite there being over 9 million people in prison globally at any given time. It notes that research suggests that there is often higher HIV infection rates among prisoners than in the general population even though prisoners are entitled to receive health care equivalent to that available in the community.   

The paper also highlights the need to protect prisoners’ rights by upholding standards of informed consent and confidentiality - prohibiting mandatory and compulsory HIV testing whilst promoting increased access to HIV testing and counselling and generally mitigating the stigma and discrimination associated with HIV.