The Nation : Prison AIDS Rate Soars

AIDS has struck prison populations at a rate up to 16 times greater than the general population because infected convicts bring in the disease through intravenous drug use, a government study showed. The report, conducted by the Justice Department’s National Institute of Justice, said that in prison populations, the 1985 rate of acquired immune deficiency syndrome ranges from 5 to 50 for every 100,000 people. In the general population, the rate is 3.4 cases to every 100,000. Prisons and jails in the mid-Atlantic region, including New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania, carry more than 75% of the AIDS cases, the study said.