Prisons for HIV/AIDS carriers?

I was shocked to read The Jakarta Post's article on April 4, 2002 about the increasing number of inmates afflicted by HIV/AIDS in Jakarta's prisons. The Post quoted health officials as saying that 22 percent of 200 prisoners who took HIV/AIDS tests at Salemba Penitentiary in Central Jakarta tested positive. These figures are indeed appalling if the report is accurate.

This raises the suspicion that the same thing has also happened in other prisons. To my understanding, people contracting the deadly virus are "finished", confined to isolation as they could pose a dangerous threat to others.

The government may not take this issue lightly. If the report is correct, it should take immediate steps to safeguard other inmates and secure their future. Prisoners are sent to jail to absolve their "sins", not to end their lives.

The first step that should be taken is to test all inmates to see how large the number of carriers in prisons are. Those who test positive should then be confined to separate jails. Where possible, a special prison for the infected should be established. Of course, this is expensive because each test costs Rp 85,000, which amounts to about Rp 180 million for all 2,106 inmates.

This is a huge amount of money but do we want to see inmates die prematurely? I think nobody would want to see members of their family end their lives in jail.

ANDI ABDUSSALAM

Tangerang, Banten