The Isolation of Prisoners in the United States Research Paper

The Isolation of Prisoners in the United States - Research Paper Example In the year 2005, the case that was placed against the California state was by a prisoner of African-American origin who had been placed in isolation since the year 1987. The prisoner finally filed his case and argued that he deserved â€Å"Equal Protection.† The Court ruled against the state and put forward the fact that such isolation was not legal. This case clearly explained the fact that racial isolation in prisons was being practised up until the year 2005 and stronger measures were essential to overcome this issue (Palmer 2010). Isolation of prisoners who report being HIV positive and their compulsory testing for this disease has also been a controversial problem. According to the guidelines of the World Health Organization, this separation of HIV and AIDS positive prisoners is against the ethical and moral laws. There are many underlying reasons presented for this stand of the WHO. It is clearly explained that HIV is not a disease which can spread by â€Å"casual contact† and hence if the reason provided for this isolation is the prevention of spread, it is not justified. There are many disadvantages of separation of these prisoners. This is because other prisoners would not wish to be tested for HIV as they would not wish to be isolated from jail mates. Furthermore, the patients who would be HIV positive would also not come forward for treatment owing to the fear of being kept alone. This forced isolation would also create an image of the HIV positive prisoners as being dangerous and thus they would be subjected to bias from their officials as well as other fellow prisoners.