HIV Prevention in the Correctional System

Abstract

During 1990, an estimated 4,350,000 adults--2.4% of the total U.S. adult population--were under correctional supervision* in the United States, a 75% increase since 1983 (1). From 1983 through 1989, the number of juveniles (aged 10-17 years) in custody increased 25%, from 80,091 to 99,846 (U.S. Department of Justice, personal communication, 1992). By November 1990, 4519 cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) had been reported among inmates in federal and 45 state prisons, and 2466 cases had been reported by 25 city/county jail systems (U.S. Department of Justice, unpublished data, 1991); these totals include both cases of AIDS reported among persons before their incarceration as well as those reported by prison systems. This report characterizes efforts to prevent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission within correctional systems.