Senate Bill S1407

                                BILL NUMBER:S1407

TITLE  OF  BILL:    An act to amend the correction law, in relation to
human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) prevention

PURPOSE:  To require information regarding HIV testing, counseling and
education to  be  provided  to  persons  upon  release  from  a  state
correctional facility.

SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Sections  1  of  the  bill  amends  the correction law by adding a new
section to require that inmates being released from state correctional
facilities be provided with information about the prevention of  human
immunodeficiency  virus  (HIV) infection and instructions about how to
obtain free HIV testing upon release,  including  contact  information
for HIV counseling and testing service providers.

JUSTIFICATION:   Prisons are breeding grounds for infectious diseases,
namely HIV and AIDS. Such is evident in the AIDS  rate  in  state  and
federal  prisons, which is seven times higher than in the general U.S.
population.  Between 1995 and 1999, the HIV infection rate in  Federal
and  State  prisons  rose  from  1,500 to 25,757 according to the U.S.
Department of Justice. As of 2001, New  York  State  has  the  largest
known infection rate of 7,000 inmates.

              

The  debilitating  affect  of  AIDS  on  racial  and  ethnic  minority
communities has worsened,  as  the  demography  of  the  epidemic  has
changed  considerably  over  the  last  decade.  African Americans and
Hispanics, in particular, are now disproportionately affected.  Racial
minority  groups  today  represent  almost  three quarters of new AIDS
cases. Although Hispanics made up only about 14% of the population  of
the  United  States,  they  accounted  for  19% of the estimated cases
diagnosed since the beginning of the epidemic, and alarmingly, in 2004
Hispanics accounted  for  20%  of  new  diagnoses.  African  Americans
accounted  for  43%  of all AIDS cases reported during that same year,
even though African Americans make up  just  12%  of  the  population.
Among African American women, the figures are even more alarming - 67%
of American women diagnosed with AIDS in 2004 were black.

According  to a recent study by researchers at U.C. Berkeley, the high
rate of African American men in incarceration may also have  played  a
role  in  the  rapid  spread  of  HIV  throughout the African American
community. Researchers discovered that  the  increase  in  AIDS  among
black Americans closely corresponds to the rise in incarceration rates
of  black  men over the past two decades. This is due, in part, to the
fact that prison systems are havens for high risk behaviors that  make
the  spread  of  HIV  prevalent,  including intravenous (IV) drug use,
tattooing, unprotected sex between men and male rape and  the  use  of
contaminated  cutting  instruments.  It  is  also  a result of the HIV
positive men and women entering the system and those who are  infected
during  their  incarceration,  who  do  not know their status and lack
adequate information and resources to protect themselves. Under  these
circumstances,  HIV is being transmitted unwittingly, and resultantly,
a number of positive HIV cases in prisons are increasing.


As hundreds of thousands of young men are released  from  prison  each
year,  many  will  return to those communities that are hardest hit by
HIV. Without proper education and counseling of regarding HIV  status,
the impact on minority communities will undoubtedly worsen.  Requiring
notification  about  the  prevention  of  human immunodeficiency virus
(HIV) infection and instructions about how to obtain free HIV  testing
upon  release,  including  contact  information for HIV counseling and
testing  service  providers,  upon  release  from  incarceration  will
further  the  goals of HIV control, prevention, and education and help
to alleviate  barriers  to  health  care  that  typically  exist  upon
release.

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2009-2010: S.5973
2011-2012: S.6488 - Died in Committee

FISCAL IMPLICATIONS: Minimal.

EFFECTIVE  DATE:    To  take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall
have become law.