Sheriff Approves Handout of Condoms to Gay Inmates

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has quietly begun distributing condoms to gay inmates at its downtown jail, joining just six other jails and prisons in the country in an effort to stop the spread of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases.

Although condom distribution to thwart AIDS is a long-accepted medical practice, it carries special complications behind bars. Under California law, sex in jails and prisons is considered a felony. Sheriff’s officials insist that they are not allowing inmates to have sex in the jails and that they will investigate any inmates caught in the act.

But officials say they are concerned, too, about the health implications of doing nothing.

The condom distribution, which began three weeks ago, comes after sheriff’s officials say they became increasingly aware of syphilis and HIV rates in the jails.

The Sheriff’s Department, which runs the largest jail system in the country, spends $180,000 a month on AIDS medications to treat 220 inmates. Officials say they are identifying 500 inmates per month who are HIV-positive. And Los Angeles County health officials found 100 new HIV cases--nearly 14% of the 723 screenings given to men over 10 months this year--in the gay section of the jail. The health department also found 27 cases of chlamydia, 16 new cases of gonorrhea and several cases of early syphilis in that unit.

“This is a health issue,” said Chief Taylor Moorehead, who oversees the county jails and made the decision to allow the condom distribution. “I did it only for health reasons. It’s a sign of the times . . . and a reality-based response from me that says I acknowledge the fact that fatal disease is spread in this fashion.”

Yet it is a paradox for politicians and others: On the one hand, they face serious public health issues; on the other, distributing condoms can be a weighty, unorthodox decision that can appear to give sanction to an illegal act.

In those respects, distributing condoms in the jails is similar to the needle exchange program in which officials give drug addicts new needles.

Indeed, the sheriff’s policy already has found some detractors--among those who feel it goes too far and from some who worry it does not go far enough.

Sgt. Patrick Gomez, who is running against Sheriff Lee Baca in the March election, said he believes it is inappropriate for the department to offer inmates condoms, even though the costs are borne by an outside group.

“I don’t think it’s appropriate for Baca to throw his arms up and say, ‘They’re going to have sex anyway, so let’s give them condoms,’ ” Gomez said. “What’s next? They’re using drugs, so we should give them clean syringes? . . . Conjugal visits?”

Others, however, suggested that the sheriff should extend the condom distribution to more inmates aside from just those who have identified themselves as gay and are housed in a special segregated unit of the jail.

Baca said he supports the program because it is a disease-prevention effort. He said gay activists and others have been pushing for condoms to be provided to inmates.

“I don’t believe you can stop people in jail from engaging in sexual activity because the law says it’s forbidden,” Baca said. “We just think that communicable diseases need to be controlled. That’s all. That’s what this is about.”

But the sheriff added that he does not believe anyone should assume that HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is being spread in jail.

Los Angeles County inmates spend an average of 44 days in jail, and studies have not been conducted to show whether men who arrive healthy leave diseased. In state prisons, however, studies have shown that AIDS rates, among other communicable diseases, are disproportionately higher than in the general population.

Baca and other sheriff’s officials said they carefully tailored their program so that deputies are not involved in any way. They said they believed the deputies’ union, which declined to comment on the issue, would object if deputies participated.

Instead, an outside nonprofit group, Correct HELP, provides a weekly AIDS education lecture and then distributes the condoms. Each condom has a sticker on it with the group’s hotline telephone number for inmates’ questions. The group also has provided three receptacles in the jail dormitories where inmates can place used condoms.

AIDS Education Part of Jailhouse Effort

Mary Sylla, the director of Correct HELP, is a former ACLU attorney charged with monitoring medical conditions in the jails. Sylla applauded the Sheriff’s Department for taking the step and said she hopes the department becomes a leader in the state and the country.

As she walked into one of the three dormitories at Men’s Central Jail on a recent day, an inmate shouted: “Hey, condom lady!”

“This is a big deal, nationally,” Sylla said.

Four other jails--in New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.--and two prisons--in Vermont and Mississippi--offer condoms to inmates. Several of those, including San Francisco, require inmates to attend an AIDS educational meeting as well.

In Los Angeles, the program has attracted most notice in the section of the jail reserved for gay inmates. The 295 inmates housed there are self-identified but also are screened by deputies.

On a recent day, Deputies Randy Bell and Bart Lanni conducted 23 interviews with inmates seeking to be placed in the section. Of those, two were sent back to the general population.

Deputies said that is a daily occurrence. Inmates say they are gay--even fill out a questionnaire saying they frequent gay bars and read gay literature--to gain access to the dorms for a variety of reasons. Some believe it is a safe place to hide out if they have been charged with spousal abuse or some other crime that could put them in danger among other inmates, the deputies said. Others believe the gay dorms are an easier place to live, they said.

Without the condoms, the deputies said, inmates were using latex gloves--now referred to as “love gloves”--and wrappers from Corn Nuts to protect themselves.

“How safe could that be?” said Bell, one of the senior deputies who oversees the gay dorms.

‘Opportunity to Stop the Spread of Disease’

Since the launch of the distribution program, Sylla’s group has handed out more than 400 condoms: 215 in the first week, 193 in the second. The third weekly distribution is scheduled for today.

“People approach this as a moral issue, but it is really an issue about the spread of disease,” Lanni said. “I look at it as a great opportunity to stop the spread of disease.”

Bell and Lanni said they support handing out condoms to gay male inmates in part because these inmates have high recidivism rates--the deputies suggest as high as 94%. They said inmates with such communicable diseases as AIDS, syphilis and hepatitis could infect others in the community upon their release and then infect still others back inside the jails if they return. It is a vicious cycle of disease that could be fatal, they said.

Anne De Groot, who heads the HIV Prison Project at Brown University, said one in three Hepatitis C cases occurs in people who spent time in prisons and jails. She praised the Sheriff’s Department, but like others, suggested it could go even further.

“I think it’s terrific for one of the largest jails in the United States to recognize the fact that, no matter what they try to do, people continue to be sexually active in correctional settings,” De Groot said. “I think that the new introduction [of condoms] in the gay section doesn’t really go far enough. Those who are identified as gay or who self-identify are not the only ones having sex. There’s still a huge stigma in the straight community to identify as gay.”

Catherine Hanssens, director of the New York City AIDS Project for the Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund, agreed. She said that risks are particularly high for partners of inmates who are infected with diseases and who have not identified themselves as gay or bisexual.

“It really does kind of overlook a critical threat to the outside population, and it also still overlooks an extraordinary prevention education opportunity,” Hanssens said. “Considering how few systems will even consider it, I’m loathe to criticize them. . . . It’s a step in the right direction.”

Sheriff’s officials, however, say they have no plans to expand the program to the general jail population. Moreover, Baca said, if problems arise in the gay dorms, he will terminate the program.

If the condoms are found in any other section of the jail, in fact, they will be considered contraband, and inmates will be punished.

“If this is abused,” Moorehead said, “they themselves will end up killing the program.”