The Nation - News from June 15, 1987

Education Secretary William J. Bennett says the government may want to extend the imprisonment of inmates with AIDS who threaten to infect other people after their release. “I have difficulty with (holding a prisoner whose sentence is served), but I have difficulty with the guy I saw on TV who said: ‘I’m mad at society. I’m going to go out and infect everyone I can,’ Bennett said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.” Bennett’s advocacy of some mandatory tests for acquired immune deficiency syndrome was criticized by Sen. Lowell P. Weicker Jr. (R-Conn.). He said the issue is education of young people. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), who is sponsoring a bill calling for mandatory testing in some cases, said the logical outcome of testing is a quarantine of those found to be infected with the virus.