Better Care Behind Bars

Data from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics has shown that the number of U.S. prisoners in 2006 who died of AIDS-related complications dropped nearly 50% from the previous year, a sign that HIV medical care is improving behind bars. The report shows that at the end of 2006 there were roughly 22,000 HIV-positive inmates in U.S. correctional facilities (5,977 of whom had been diagnosed with AIDS). There were about 2.3 million Americans in federal, state, and local correctional facilities at the end of 2006.