These legal cases have been important, but it would be a shame if prisoners were obliged to have recourse to the courts in order to claim and have recognized their rights to access preventive means. There can be no question that the issue of providing protective means to prisoners would be more appropriately dealt with by swift action by correctional systems than by court action. Prisoners, even though they live behind bars, are part of our communities. Most prisoners leave prison at some point to return to their community, some after only a short time inside. Some prisoners enter and leave prison many times.
Prisoners deserve the same level of care and protection that people outside prison get.
There is no doubt that governments have a moral and legal responsibility to prevent the spread of HIV among prisoners and prison staff and to care for those infected. They also have a responsibility to prevent the spread of HIV among communities. Prisoners are the community. They come from the community, they return to it. Introduction of preventive measures in prisons, and providing inmates with medical care equivalent to that available outside, is in the interest of all concerned.