Aids Educators Reach Out To Prisoners

AIDS EDUCATORS REACH OUT TO PRISONERS

by Judson N. Kempson

The course of the AIDS epidemic is changing. Once considered a "gay disease," AIDS is increasingly threatening other stigmatized and oppressed communities, particularly IV drug users and communities of color. In the wake of the governmental non-response to the crisis, the gay white male community, which was already politically organized, has responded to the epidemic by forming volunteer organizations that provide educational and support services to people with AIDS.

The efforts of these organizations have been successful. The incidence of HIV infection has dropped off in the gay white male community. Other affected groups, however, have not been so fortunate. The spread of the virus continues unabated among IV drug users, their sexual partners, their children and the homeless. More and more, the disease is disproportionately one of poor people of color.

The statistics are sobering. Blacks account for 12% and Hispanics account for 7% of the general population. Yet 26% of people with AIDS are Black and 14% are Hispanic. Eighty percent of the women with AIDS are Black or Hispanic. Black children make up 53% and Hispanic children make up 23% of pediatric AIDS cases. In Michigan, 45% of people with AIDS are Black.

AIDS organizations, therefore, are going through growing pains. In the race to get information to the people who need it before they become exposed to HlV, these organizations are rethinking their strategies and trying to expand their services beyond the white middle class.

One such local organization, Wellness Networks Inc. - Huron Valley, has just launched an educational project targeting prisoners, a population that is also disproportionately Black. On March 15 and again on April 5, Wellness volunteers showed a video on AIDS, presented statistics about the epidemic in Michigan, discussed safer sex and safer drug use, and answered questions from enthusiastic inmates at Cassidy Lake Technical School. Cassidy Lake is a minimum security correctional facility located outside Chelsea.

The prison project began when Wellness began to receive requests from prisoners for visitors. One such prisoner with AIDS was "buddies" with Wellness workers Michael Patrick O'Connor, Jim Becker and this reporter. (A "buddy," in AIDS parlance, refers to the person with AIDS and the volunteer, who provides both practical and emotional support.) From their experience with the prisoner, who died last September, the volunteers realized that there was little AIDS education in prisons.

"The prison population is more likely to bc neglected," said O'Connor, who leads the prison project, comprised of himself, Becker, this reporter and Judith McCormick, a nurse. "Clearly a number of the prisoners (at the presentations at Cassidy Lake) knew about AIDS but just weren't clear on it."

In his experience with the Department of Corrections, O'Connor indicated that there was a great deal of ignorance about AIDS or an unwillingness to address the issue on the part of prison officials. In some cases, he noted, it did not appear that the prison health care staff took AIDS seriously.

According to O'Connor, the immediate goals of Wellness's prison project are to set up educational programs in the prisons, starting with the minimum security facilities and progressing to medium security facilities in the area. The program, he hopes will establish dialogue between AIDS activists and the Department of Corrections. Both staff and prisoners, then, will become aware of the educational and support services that Wellness is willing to provide. Wellness plans on giving two more presentations at Cassidy Lake and then moving on to Camp Brighton, another minimum security facility outside Pinckney.

A large part of the success of the program will depend on the cooperation of the Corrections staff. The volunteers were warmly welcomed by the staff at Cassidy Lake, particularly Jack Willsey, principal of the school, and Adria Libolt, Deputy Warden.

Libolt, who supervises five other camps in the area in addition to Cassidy Lake, is very enthusiastic about the program. She has attended both sessions and was impressed by the presentation and the level of discussion which followed. "The program is important," she said, "because AIDS is a problem for everyone."

Wellness Networks Inc. - Huron Valley is an all-volunteer AIDS organization that provides educational and support services for the community. For more information, call 572-WELL or 1-800-872-AIDS.