HEALTH-ZAMBIA:
HIV-Positive Prisoners Find Freedom a Mixed Blessing
Zarina Geloo
LUSAKA, Oct 21 (IPS) - The HIV pandemic has proved a divisive force in
several African countries, not least Zambia.
As IPS reported last month, the question of whether to make HIV tests
mandatory has sparked fierce debate in the country. According to the Joint
United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) Zambia currently has a 19
percent HIV prevalence rate.
However, another controversy is also afoot about the wisdom of releasing
prisoners in the advanced stages of AIDS.
Since late 2001, more than 300 sick inmates have been freed by President
Levy Mwanawasa on compassionate grounds.
Commissioner of Prisons Jethro Mumbuwa says Zambia's jails simply lack
the resources to look after convicts who are seriously ill.
"The prisons are under-resourced both financially and (in terms of) human
resources. Besides, we think that when people are terminally ill they are
better off spending their last days with their families," he noted.
With many of the former inmates having been given life sentences for
serious infractions, protests from the victims of their crimes might have
been expected.
But surprisingly, some of the strongest opposition to the releases has
come from the prisoners' families.
"Why, why give me this shell?" asks the wife of HIV-positive ex-prisoner
Samson Nkumba (not his real name).
"They (the government) must keep him, because I cannot do what they have
failed to do. I cannot afford ARVs (anti-retroviral drugs). It is traumatic
for the children to see their father in this way," she adds.
These words are echoed by Clement Mfuzi, chairman of the Network of
Zambian People Living with HIV/AIDS (NZP+). "Zambians are poor. (If) you
lock up the bread earner, where do you expect families to get money to look
after a sick relative?" he asks.
An instance where release worked to good effect was that of Jack Chiti,
who was jailed for attempting to topple former president Frederick Chiluba
in October 1997. Chiti's relatives petitioned for his release, and he
subsequently died in the care of his family.
NZP+ believes that government is entrenching the stigma surrounding
HIV-positive persons by washing its hands of prisoners with AIDS-related
diseases.
While prison authorities claim inmates are counselled about their
condition before being released, NZP+ also queries whether this process is
adequate - and whether the convicts' families are being properly advised on
how to care for them.
"You just do not unleash people with HIV onto an unsuspecting public.
What if the convicts themselves are in denial (about their HIV status) and
continue to have unprotected sex with their.spouses?" asks Mfuzi.
Prison often hardens convicts rather than rehabilitating them, he adds.
This might encourage reckless behaviour on the part of former inmates -
which makes the need for prison and home-based counselling still more
urgent.
Says Nkumba, "They removed us from society because they said we were a
danger to the public. They now throw us back to the same society when we are
even more dangerous than before."
"Neither myself or my family were counselled, and I had not heard of any
of my colleagues who were in the same situation being counselled. We are
just told we are being released - that's it," he adds.
At present, Zambian courts do not take HIV status into consideration when
sentencing felons. There are no voluntary counselling and testing facilities
in prisons, and HIV tests are only conducted when a convict falls ill
repeatedly.
Nonetheless, the dirt, congestion and poor nutrition that prevail in many
prisons all but ensure that those HIV-positive prisoners at risk of
developing AIDS-related diseases do so. Unprotected sex between male inmates
also fuels the spread of HIV.
"The convicts cannot be forced or coerced into testing for HIV because of
the human rights issue. But, I see a time when this will be a necessity
because HIV is flourishing in the prisons," says Leslie Phiri, a lawyer
based in the capital - Lusaka.
Zambia's Permanent Human Rights Commission insists that no prisoner
should be forced to test for HIV, however.
Instead, it recommends that prisons be reformed to ensure that
HIV-positive inmates receive the treatment needed to keep them alive.
Elsewhere in the region, officials are also grappling with the effects of
HIV on prisons.
According to a 2003 study conducted by the Pretoria-based Institute for
Security Studies, the HIV policies that South Africa's Department of
Correctional Services has introduced are "excellent" in certain respects.
It notes, however, that the distribution of condoms in prisons -
something advocated by UNAIDS and the World Health Organisation - ".would be
considerably improved if it were to include the discreet provision of
condoms in common areas rather than requiring prisoners to request condoms
face to face with a member of the health staff."
The study, entitled 'HIV/AIDS in Prison: Problems, Policies, and
Potential', goes on to state that "the provision of water-based lubricant in
a similarly accessible manner" would help to reduce condom breakage and
damage to the rectum during anal sex. Breakages and rectal damage facilitate
the transmission of HIV.
Malawi, with its Banja la Mtsogolo (Family of the Future) programme, aims
to educate over 5,000 prisoners in 21 jails about HIV. The initiative also
incorporates treatment for prisoners who have sexually-transmitted
infections.
According to UNAIDS, HIV prevalence in Malawi is at 15 percent.
(END/2004)
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