Something nobody ever seems to want to talk about: sex, prison and STD’s.
The study’s objective was to assess the link between incarceration and sexually transmitted infection, including HIV, from a social network perspective.
Data collected from a social network study in Brooklyn (n=343) were measured for associations between incarceration and infection with herpes simplex virus-2, chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis or HIV and sex with an infected partner, adjusting for characteristics of respondents and their sex partners.
“Infection with an STI or HIV was associated with incarceration of less than one year (adjusted prevalence ratio=1.33; 95 percent confidence interval=1.01, 1.76) and one year or longer (adjusted PR=1.37; 95 percent CI=1.08, 1.74). Sex in the past three months with an infected partner was associated with sex in the past three months with one partner (adjusted PR=1.42; 95 percent CI=1.12, 1.79) and with two or more partners (adjusted PR=1.85; 95 percent CI=1.43, 2.38) who had ever been incarcerated,” the results found.
There is a need for STI and HIV treatment and prevention for current and former prisoners, concluded the authors. The results provide preliminary evidence to indicate that incarceration may influence HIV and other STIs, “possibly because incarceration increases the risk of sex with infected partners.”
I love it when science follows common sense. Well, at least informed common sense…
From Eternity To Here 
very interesting post. To that I’ll add the increased risk of using dirty needles for individuals serving custodial sentences.
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One thing I never understood about the whole “parolees can’t have medical marijuana cards” was why the state would deliberately put them in an environment where their risk of contracting STI’s (like HIV) immediately goes way up, then when they get out, tells them they can’t have access to a plant that helps with the side effects of the drugs they likely now have to take because they got infected.
Huh? We end up creating so many more problems for the state when we incarcerate for social ills, which don’t usually solve addiction problems, and now we just have an addict with a record, who can’t get a job, who needs to go on social assistance and medical assistance, but only the medical assistance that profits big pharmaceutical companies and not local caregivers or people who prefer natural remedies.
It boggles the mind…
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