HIV/AIDS is widespread in prisons; SC has solved the problem; so here comes Holder's Justice Department to unsolve it

Two unpleasant topics of conversation most of us avoid are the epidemic of HIV/AIDS among prison inmates and a variety of sometimes violent events resulting in transmission of the disease. Some states long ago implemented policies to protect the uninfected part of the prison population while providing exceptional medical treatment and counseling to the infected population.

In South Carolina, it has worked so well since 1998 that there has only been a single transmission of HIV/AIDS to a noninfected prisoner. All that may change, however, thanks to a threat from Eric Holder's Justice Department.

South Carolina received a letter from the now-infamous Civil Rights Division that the policy of keeping infected inmates at a designated facility, instead of scattered across the state in the general prison population, may unfairly stigmatize infected prisoners. To the Obama political appointees in the Civil Rights Division, this constitutes discrimination under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

The Justice Department objects to separate living facilities and specialized medical treatment for the HIV/AIDS prison population. Naturally, DOJ has threatened a lawsuit.

Apparently the Justice Department doesn't have the will or resources to follow through in cases against New Black Panther Party thugs brandishing weapons at polling places, but has no difficulty shaking down a state with an effective and humane policy toward prisoners.

"These folks are shameless," says John Ozmint, the no-nonsense director of the South Carolina prison system, referring to the Civil Rights Division at DOJ. He told me that every single new prisoner is tested for AIDS upon incarceration.

Ozmint says half of those testing positive never knew they were infected. The testing policy saves lives because treatment starts immediately, at state expense.

Those testing positive receive treatment at the Broad River Road correctional facility near Columbia. They also receive extensive counseling there. But they are not part of the general prison population.

South Carolina doesn't have to do this. For starters, the state doesn't have to test prisoners. It could simply toss infected inmates unwittingly into the general prison population.

These inmates would be scattered across 28 facilities, all without the specialized care available at the Broad River facility. All of the extra counseling and treatment is also optional, but provided by the state at significant expense.

South Carolina spends more than $2 million a year helping infected inmates in the very program the DOJ is challenging. "We couldn't ever hire specialists at all of the facilities spread across the state like we can in the single Columbia facility," Ozmint told me.