HIV and HCV (Hepatitis C) in Prison -- Web Links

Of the hundreds of good Web sites on HIV, hepatitis, or prisons, we have chosen about 40 to help you get started in finding the information and services you need.

I. HIV/AIDS Medical and Service Information (Note separate hepatitis C section below.)

http://www.thebody.com/whatis/prison.html
The Body's "Prisoners and HIV/AIDS" page has links to dozens of articles including personal accounts, legal information, HIV and HCV treatment, and general news.

http://www.nmac.org/treatment/prison_initiative/prison_initiative.htm
Excellent site for the Prison Initiative of the National Minority AIDS Council. See their resource list for: "Conferences; Correctional setting-specific publications; Newsletters; Pamphlets, brochures & handouts on HIV/AIDS; Videos; General health info/STD; Hepatitis; Policy reports & other good stuff; Additional resources for inmates."

http://positivepopulations.org/
POSITIVE POPULATIONS is known for its coverage of Correctional and Public Health issues. Our web based edition features current and back issues of the Newsletter and several Internet only services. POSITIVE POPULATIONS on the Web provides regular guest commentaries by experts in correctional and public Health and the opportunity for you to comment to the authors. In addition, the web version offers a forum for people engaged in corrections and public health to share ideas and links to other sites of common interest.

http://hab.hrsa.gov/special/corrections_index.htm
Services to people with HIV in correctional settings.

http://www.cdc.gov/idu/criminaljustice.htm
This series discusses the issue of drug users in the criminal justice system. It explains the importance of this setting in reaching drug users with HIV prevention messages and interventions and looks at some of the challenges involved. Each fact sheet also provides information on how to get other materials on preventing HIV and other blood-borne infections among injection drug users (IDUs).

http://www.healthstrategies.org/pubs/factsheets.htm#phc
Fact sheets on prison and HIV, hepatitis, TB, substance abuse treatment, helping people return to the community, and other topics.

http://www.hivcorrections.org
HIV Education Prison Project (HEPP), a monthly newsletter. Published by Brown University, "HEPP Report, a forum for correctional problem solving, targets correctional administrators and HIV/AIDS and hepatitis care providers including physicians, nurses, outreach workers, and case managers." Publishes monthly newsletter on HIV treatment in prison; current and back issues are available on the Web.

http://movementbuilding.org/prisonhealth/
Understanding Prison Health Care: Fostering competence and compassion in treating prisoners

http://www.aidsinfonet.org/topics.php
Practical treatment information from New Mexico AIDS Infonet, organized as almost 140 single-page fact sheets on topics including background on AIDS, prevention, services, antivirals, opportunistic infections, side effects of medicines, alternative and complementary treatments, and AIDS Web links. Not prison specific.

http://www.prisons.org/
California Prison Focus includes hepatitis C ("Fight for consistent access to quality medical care including access to all new HIV and hepatitis C medications, diagnostic testing and combination therapies"), human rights, transgender and gender variant prisoners, and several California issues. Note hepatitis C links at:
http://www.prisons.org/HIV/hcvlinks.htm

http://www.pasan.org/PASAN.htm
Canadian organization with amazing prison planning and discharge resources -- much of it useful in the U.S. and other countries as well. See especially "PROS & CONS: A Guide to Creating Successful Community-Based HIV/AIDS Programs for Prisoners," published 2002; it's available through the "IN PRINT" link on the home page.

http://www.tpan.com/publications/positively_aware/positively_aware_2001.html
" HIV on Lockdown" (select the July/August 2001 issues of Positively Aware).

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/CID/journal/issues/v35n3/011575/brief/011575.abstract.html
Important medical article, Human Immunodeficiency Virus in Correctional Facilities: A Review. (Click "Go to full text.")

http://www.aclu.org/HIVAIDS/HIVAIDSMain.cfm
American Civil Liberty Union HIV issues, including a section on prison. Also see archive of the ACLU National Prison Project, at:
http://archive.aclu.org/issues/prisons/npp_mission.html

http://www.aidslaw.ca (click "Main content" then "Our Main Issues" then "HIV / AIDS in Prisons")
Canadian links on HIV in prison.

http://www.prisonpoz.org/listserv.htm
How the join the Prisonpoz email list on HIV and related conditions in prison.

http://www.aidsinfo.nih.gov/guidelines/
Government guidelines on HIV treatment (not prison specific).

II. Hepatitis (especially Hepatitis C) and Prison -- Resources

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5201a1.htm
U.S. guidelines on prevention and control of all hepatitis viruses, released January 2003.
A news story about the guidelines is at:
http://www.hivandhepatitis.com/hep_c/news/012903b.html

http://www.hcvinprison.org/ (including state guidelines)
" The National Hepatitis C Prison Coalition was formed to bring together organizations and individuals interested in raising awareness and providing support to prisoners who are suffering from hepatitis and HIV/HCV coinfection. Our goal is to help educate prisoners and advocate for better testing, treatment and prevention of these diseases." This site includes Department of Corrections HCV treatment guidelines for 26 states (others are being added now) -- and many useful links on HCV, HIV, and prisons (check the bottom of the home page, as well as the "Links" page).

http://www.prisons.org/HIV/hcvlinks.htm
This page has about 25 links to organizations and publications working on issues related to HIV/HCV co-infection in prison.

III. General Prison Help

http://www.prisonactivist.org/links
Over 300 Web links on prison activism (not health specific). Also see the home page, http://www.prisonactivist.org/links

http://www.prisonerswithchildren.org/
" Legal Services for Prisoners with Children advocates for the human rights and empowerment of incarcerated parents, children, family members and people at risk for incarceration. We respond to requests for information, trainings, technical assistance, litigation, community activism and the development of more advocates. Our focus is on women prisoners and their families, and we emphasize that issues of race are central to any discussion of incarceration."

http://www.jnow.org/
Justice Now
" Our mission is to end violence against women and stop their imprisonment. We believe that prisons and policing are not making our communities safe and whole but that, in fact, the current system severely damages the people it imprisons and the communities most affected by it. We promote alternatives to policing and prisons and challenge the prison industrial complex in all its forms. "

http://schr.org/resources/
Southern Center for Human Rights -- legal and support resources, especially for Georgia and Alabama.

http://www.curenational.org/new/
" CURE (Citizens United for Rehabilitation of Errants) is a membership organization of families of prisoners, prisoners, former prisoners and other concerned citizens. CURE's two goals are (1) to use prisons only for those who have to be in them (2) and for those who have to be in them, to provide them all the rehabilitative opportunities they need to turn their lives around."

http://www.fortunesociety.org/
" Staffed primarily by ex-offenders, The Fortune Society is a not-for-profit community-based organization dedicated to educating the public about prisons, criminal justice issues, and the root causes of crime. We also help ex-offenders and at-risk youth break the cycle of crime and incarceration through a broad range of services."

http://www.osborneny.org/
The Osborne Associations offers services for prisoners in New York State.
Also see the statistics that cycle through a box on the screen. For example: The rate of HIV infection in prison is almost 12 times higher than in the general population; Nearly 1,500,000 U. S. children have a parent in prison; Nearly half of New York's prisoners are drug offenders; Fewer than 30% of New York prisoners have been convicted of a violent offense; Thirteen percent of all African American men in the U.S. cannot vote because they are in prison or on probation or parole; A quarter of all the world's prisoners are in U.S. prisons and jails.

http://www.tifa.org/
Texas Inmate Families Association
" Six out of ten children follow their parents into prison. This statistic is way too high! We, as families, must become involved to change a system that is hardened and often inaccessible."

http://www.centerforce.org/
Support for families and visitors of prisoners, in Northern and Central California. "The Centerforce mission is to strengthen individuals and families affected by incarceration through a comprehensive system of education and support." Also see:
http://www.caps.ucsf.edu/projects/mapindex.html

http://headlines.yahoo.com/Full_Coverage/US/prisons/
Yahoo's Web page on recent prison news.

http://www.pacificnews.org/yo/beat/about.html
" The Beat Within is a publication of the writings and art from Juvenile Halls and beyond."

http://www.thepamperedprisoner.com/resource.htm
A pen-pal personals site that includes miscellaneous resource lists.

IV. Prison Statistics and Reference

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/hivp01.htm
U.S. statistics on number of prisoners with HIV in each state, and in Federal prisons, in 2001. Released January 2004.
Note: Similar reports are available for every year since 1993; they can be reached through the same Web page.

http://www.corrections.com
" The official home of corrections," with lots of information including some on health care, and HIV. Also see http://www.corrections.com/aca, the American Corrections Association, which includes an archive of April 2002 oral talks on hepatitis in prison.

http://www.ncchc.org
Provides standards, guidelines, and technical assistance on health care for prisoners. "The mission of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care is to improve the quality of health care in jails, prisons and juvenile confinement facilities." They are not activists, but accredit prison health programs as meeting their standards; accreditation is voluntary, but over 500 institutions are accredited. Their 2003 standards for health care are at at:
http://www.ncchc.org/pubs/index.html

http://www.ncjrs.org/
Huge database of reports on prison, law enforcement, courts, and crime, from the National Criminal Justice Research Service. Click "view all subjects" for a list of categories.

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/NACJD/archive.html
Another large research database -- this one from the National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.