SCHR: Human Rights in Prisons and Jails, Useful Links


General Resources

  • American Corrections Association "The official home of corrections," with lots of information including some on health care, and HIV. Also see http://www.corrections.com/aca, the American Corrections Association, which includes an archive of April 2002 oral talks on hepatitis in prison.
  • Centerforce Support for families and visitors of prisoners, in Northern and Central California. The Centerforce mission is to strengthen individuals and families affected by incarceration through a comprehensive system of education and support. Also see: Center for AIDS Prevention Studies
  • Correctional Healthcare Consortium -- You can look up lots of prison information by state. But this site has not been updated since November 2002.
  • The Fortune Society Staffed primarily by ex-offenders, The Fortune Society is a not-for-profit community-based organization dedicated to educating the public about prisons, criminal justice issues, and the root causes of crime. We also help ex-offenders and at-risk youth break the cycle of crime and incarceration through a broad range of services.
  • National Commission on Correctional Health Care Provides standards, guidelines, and technical assistance on health care for prisoners. The mission of the National Commission on Correctional Health Care is to improve the quality of health care in jails, prisons and juvenile confinement facilities. They are not activists, but accredit prison health programs as meeting their standards; accreditation is voluntary, but over 500 institutions are accredited. They have some of the best reports and figures; for example, see The Health Status of Soon-To-Be-Released Inmates volumes 1 and 2.
  • National Criminal Justice Research Service  Huge database of reports on prison, law enforcement, courts, and crime. 
  • National Archive of Criminal Justice Data.
  • The Osborne Association offers many services for prisoners in New York State, including the AIDS in Prison project, which accepts collect calls about HIV or AIDS from New York prisoners. Also see the statistics that cycle through a box on the screen. 
  • Other Side of the Wall
    A wonderful and expansive website devoted to prisoners and prison issues, including articles, features, inmate artwork and writings, and prison news.
  • Pampered Prisoner A pen-pal personals site that includes miscellaneous resource lists.
  • Prisoner Activist Resource Center PARC is a source for progressive and radical information on prisons and the criminal prosecution system.
  • Prisonsucks.com A clearinghouse for useful, verifiable statistics about the crime control industry.
  • Texas Inmate Families Association  
  • Women's Prison Association WPA is a service and advocacy organization committed to helping women with criminal justice histories realize new possibilities for themselves and their families.
  • Yahoo's Web page on recent prison news.

    HIV/AIDS Medical and Service Information

         (Note: Hepatitis C section below.)

    American Civil Liberties Union HIV issues, including a section on prison.

     

    The Body's "Prisoners and HIV/AIDS" page has links to dozens of articles including personal accounts, legal information, HIV and HCV treatment, and general news.

     
    California Prison Focus HIV/Hepatitis C has news stories, letters, links. Purposes include fight for consistent access to quality medical care including access to all new HIV and hepatitis C medications, diagnostic testing and combination therapies.
     
    HIV Education Prison Project (HEPP), a monthly newsletter. Published by Brown University, HEPP Report, a forum for correctional problem solving, targets correctional administrators and HIV/AIDS and hepatitis care providers including physicians, nurses, outreach workers, and case managers. Publishes monthly newsletter on HIV treatment in prison; current and back issues are available on the Web.

     

    "HIV in Prison 2000" - by Bureau of Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice.
     
    Hopkins AIDS Education.  (You may need to select the Corrections chapter.) The Corrections chapter is no longer in the print version, but the 2000/2001 chapter is still online.
     
    HIV on Lockdown Select the July/August 2001 issues of Positively Aware.

     

    New Mexico AIDS Infonet, Practical treatment information organized as almost 140 single-page fact sheets on topics including background on AIDS, prevention, services, antivirals, opportunistic infections, side effects of medicines, alternative and complementary treatments, and AIDS Web links.

     

    PASAN.  Canadian organization with amazing prison planning and discharge resources -- much of it useful in the U.S. and other countries as well. See especially "PROS & CONS: A Guide to Creating Successful Community-Based HIV/AIDS Programs for Prisoners," published 2002; it's available through the "IN PRINT" link on the home page.
     

    Prison Initiative of the National Minority AIDS Council. See their resource list for: Conferences; Correctional setting-specific publications; Newsletters; Pamphlets, brochures & handouts on HIV/AIDS; Videos; General health info/STD; Hepatitis; Policy reports & other good stuff; Additional resources for inmates.

     

    Prisonpoz. Has an email list on HIV and related conditions in prison.
     
    U.S. government HIV/AIDS treatment guidelines.
     

    HVC (Hepatitis C) and Prison -- Resources 

    HCV Prison Project, a consortium of organizations working to provide support and education to prisoners with hepatitis C and co-infected with HIV and hepatitis C. Our goal is to bring about
    more awareness of the HCV epidemic in prisons and ensure that prisoners are treated fairly and humanely and are given access to prevention measures, diagnosis and treatment consistent with community standards of care.

    The National Hepatitis C Prison Coalition was formed to bring together organizations and individuals interested in raising awareness and providing support to prisoners who are suffering from hepatitis and HIV/HCV co-infection. Our goal is to help educate prisoners and advocate for better testing, treatment and prevention of these diseases. Site has many useful links on HCV, HIV, and prisons (check the bottom of the home page, as well as the "Links" page).

    Prisons.org
    Here are links to some other organizations/publications working on issues related to HIV/HCV in prison.

More links