Sex, Drugs and Tattoos

Managing contagion in the era of AIDS

Prisons can be high-risk places for disease transmission as a

result of intravenous drug use, sharing of needles and syringes, tattoos given using crude unsterile equipment, and high-risk sexual practices and sexual assault.

Contraband tattoo equipment, Cooma Gaol Museum

Recognising that HIV transmission was inevitable given the prevalence of high-risk practices among inmates, various interventions were implemented, including: i Compulsory testing of prisoners

Dispensing methadone, Junee Correctional Centre, 2009 / Anya Van Lit

i Methadone programs for drug addicts i Bleach for prisoners to clean equipment i Counseling & education i Segregation, promoted by the Prison Officers

Many challenges...

“…. junior officers experienced peer group pressure from their senior counterparts especially when they began wearing rubber gloves during cell searches and blood spill situations.” E. Adamson, 2004 Prison AIDS Project: “...the AIDS issue confronts traditional beliefs and values about sex, death, drug abuse and prisoner management…” L. Scagliotti, 1990

“AIDS education which stresses individual responsibility is at odds with every other aspect of prison life ....” H. Heilpern & S. Egger, 1992