POSITRON AND EMISSION

When it comes to HIV treatment, the picture is equally bleak. Most prison systems say that they make triple-combination therapy available to prisoners with HIV. But a national survey of jails and prisons conducted by Ted Hammett, Ph.D., of Abt Associates Inc., a Cambridge-based research firm, shows that a combination of factors, including high medication costs, denial and fear of HIV by inmates, mistrust, uneven clinical competence, and lack of uniform treatment standards may limit the availability of appropriate HIV treatment regimens. Across the country, prisons take various approaches to address the HIV crisis within their walls. In the following pages, we've looked at a model program, the pros and cons of segregation, the trend toward privatization of prison health care, and the state of HIV prison activism. We've also profiled four advocates on the inside and outside who are role models pushing for better care and support for the thousands of people with HIV who remain behind bars.

-The EDITORS