Prison inmate
Kathryn Canty seems like a prime candidate for work
release: good behavior, less than three years left to serve,
and an accounting degree along with vocational
training.
But she also has
HIV.
And inmate
advocates say Alabama is the only state that bars prisoners
with the AIDS virus from participating in work release.
''I'm a worker,''
said Canty, who finishes her 4 1/2-year sentence for
forgery and theft next month. ''Work release would have been
a great help for me to catch up with technology as
well as saving money to get back on my feet.''
Work release is
the closest thing to freedom for prisoners in Alabama,
allowing select inmates to hold jobs on the outside, earn
money, and wear street clothes. They typically work at
blue-collar jobs during the day and return to prison
at night.
Alabama
Corrections Department officials said HIV-infected inmates
are barred because of a 2004 settlement under which
the prison system agreed to watch such prisoners take
their AIDS pills and make sure they are eating
properly too.
Such close
monitoring -- prompted by a lawsuit over poor health care
for those with the AIDS virus -- would be impossible
on the outside, according to the department.
Also, Ruth
Naglich, the department's associate commissioner of health
services, said allowing inmates with HIV to work on the
outside could expose them to illnesses and spread the
AIDS virus.
''I think we have
to ensure that healthy, responsible inmates are those
participating and not those who are going to exhibit risky
behaviors such as intravenous drug use or promiscuous
sexual behavior if they're allowed to go into the
community,'' she said.
Some Alabama
lawmakers and the American Civil Liberties Union have been
pressing officials to remove the restriction.
''I think we're
dealing with a long custom here in Alabama. There's fear
here,'' said Margaret Winter, associate director of the
ACLU's National Prison Project. ''Certainly we have no
reason to think anything the commissioner is doing is
based on malice -- far from it -- but there needs to
be a rational look at the facts.''
Work release
ultimately ''means less crime, fewer people returning to
prison, and ultimately it means a safer society for
everybody,'' said David Fathi, director of the U.S.
Program of Human Rights Watch. ''So by denying work
release to inmates with HIV who would otherwise be eligible,
Alabama is shooting itself in the foot.''
Alabama
Corrections commissioner Richard Allen said that the
situation is under review.
Alabama's women's
prison has 15 people with HIV, and the men's medical
ward averages 278, officials said. But only a few are
eligible for work release -- ''A handful of women and
maybe a score of men,'' Allen said -- since the
program is closed to murderers, rapists, and other violent
criminals, and inmates must meet other requirements.
On the outside,
work release inmates typically land fast-food, clerical,
maintenance, or factory jobs.
Canty, who has
completed courses in anger management, professional
development, and commercial interior design, applied for
work release in 2005, 2006, and 2007 and was turned
down each time.
''I felt
abandoned or just like I don't matter,'' she said. (Desiree
Hunter, AP)
