Hepatitis-C is endemic in American prisons, and of which if not treated or cured, can result in liver malfunction, thereby leading to debilitation, permanent injury, and to death. Further to the point, hepatitis-C can be readily prevented by stopping its most common transmission point which is primarily done in prisons through the usage of needle sharing so done for intravenous drug usage and/or tattooing. The fact that intravenous drug usage even occurs in American prisons, along with illicit tattooing is a reflection that those that monitor the inmates, are often part and parcel of the problem, for it is the prison authorities’ corruption, collusion, and complicity that allows most of this illicit activity to occur in the first place. So too, this is a fair reflection that those that run the prisons are not proactively dealing with the issue of needle sharing, by, for instance, having an adequate supply of clean needles so available for the prisoners. After all, if the mindset of those that are in charge of the inmates, is pretty much, laissez-faire, when it comes to intravenous drug usage and tattooing, the least that these prison authorities should do is to make sure that there is fair access to clean needles available to the prisoners so that they do not subsequently suffer from hepatitis-C or HIV, or things of that same general bad ilk.
We read in pewtrusts.org, that it is estimated that the hepatitis-C infection rate is in “…state correctional facilities to be about 17 percent, compared to a rate of 1 percent to 2 percent in the general population.” To the degree that common sense can reduce that hepatitis-C infection rate in the prison population, the powers-to-be should want to exercise such, as the punishment for any crime so committed, should not also include the destruction of a person’s liver, by the deliberate negligence or unconcern of those that have the responsibility to provide humane conditions within the prison environment. Additionally, the principle point of prisons should be the rehabilitation of those so incarcerated, of which, those that suffer from hepatitis-C are at a significant disadvantage in being able to perform work when they are so released, by virtue of their damaged health so related to that hepatitis-C.
Of course, many people, could care less about prisoners and hepatitis-C; for they think that those that commit crimes or are found guilty of such, should suffer for what they have so done and if as prisoners, they are inclined to use dirty needles, that is therefore their lot to bear the consequences, so of. The thing is that societies should be fairly judged upon how they deal and interact with the poorest and most vulnerable amongst them. By definition, those that are incarcerated are not free, and often are quite limited as to what they can or cannot do within the domain that they live in. So then, when prisoners are treated essentially as disposable, or with contempt, or with anything that devalues their humanity, that which claims to be the beacon of liberty of the world, has besmirched and dim its own light, to its own lasting shame.