The Inmate and Community Public Health & Safety Act is a bill that would allow nonprofit agencies to distribute 'sexual barrier protection devices' ( condoms) to be distributed in California prisons. This is driven by the need to bring down the incidence of HIV (and other stds) amongst prisoners, but it was vetoed a few weeks ago by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Governor's office said instead that they would see to it that the Department of Corrections would implement a smaller pilot condom distribution program as an alternative.
The bill, which was sponsored by AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), AIDS Project Los Angeles (APLA) and the Southern California HIV/AIDS Coalition (SCHAC), and was worded so that it would "...require the director to allow any nonprofit or health care agency to distribute sexual barrier protection devices such as condoms or dental dams to inmates, as specified. The bill would also have established...that the distribution of those devices is not a crime nor shall it be deemed to encourage sexual acts between inmates," and that, "...possession of those devices cannot be used as evidence of illegal activity for purposes of administrative sanctions ..."
This makes me uncomfortable at many levels...what do you think?
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