Prison officials testing inmates for AIDS

Wednesday, Feb. 12, 1997 | 4:23 a.m.

Prison Medical Director Michael Fitting told a joint Senate Finance-Assembly Ways and Means hearing Tuesday that every convict who enters the system is tested for HIV.

"Nevada is one of the best systems in the nation in the way it's handling its AIDS population," Fitting said. "We know who is HIV-positive and can track them through the system."

Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, said the lawmakers pushed for inmate HIV testing two sessions ago out of a growing concern that the state would be held liable for an inmate who contracts AIDS while in prison.

Inmates have filed lawsuits in other states after acquiring either AIDS or tuberculosis, claiming a "failure to protect" under the Eighth Amendment, Fitting said.

In Nevada, the number of cases where AIDS was transmitted to other inmates or guards within the system is negligible, he said.

Out of the state's 8,325 inmate population, 136 are HIV-positive and three-quarters of those require some kind of medical care, Fitting said.

Twenty percent of the Medical Division's pharmaceutical costs go to the prison system's AIDS patients and a fourth of the inmate deaths last year were HIV-related, Fitting said.

Prisons Director Bob Bayer said HIV-positive inmates are generally treated the same as other inmates, but might be restricted from some types of work, like in the kitchens, where they might expose others to the disease.

"We try to program them to their ability, and if they get sick, they go to different housing," Bayer said.

Knowledge of the inmates' HIV-positive condition is kept confidential, "unless an inmate bites an officer, then we would let those involved know," Bayer said.