Chino Gets 2nd Prison AIDS Unit Next Week

The state prison system’s second housing unit devoted exclusively to inmates with AIDS will open next week in an austere tan building at the California Institution for Men here, testament to the burgeoning number of AIDS cases within the prisons, Corrections Department officials said Tuesday.

The 180-bed “prison within a prison” will be the second such unit after the 140-bed AIDS ward at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, Corrections Department spokesman Robert Gore said during a tour of the building held for reporters.

But Gore said that the number of inmates with AIDS is growing and that state officials expect the new AIDS ward, which is formally known as the Del Norte unit, to reach capacity within two years. More AIDS wards will be needed, he said.

In a telephone interview, Dr. Nadim Khoury, chief of health services for the California Department of Corrections, said: “I think realistically, we have to think of the possibility that all of the state’s prisons will have an AIDS section one day.”

Additional Wards

When and where to establish additional AIDS wards may depend on the results of blood tests being conducted this month on up to 8,000 new inmates at nine state prisons, including Chino, Gore said. The results of these tests, which are being carried out on an anonymous but involuntary basis, will be available within two to three months, Gore said.

“If this ‘blind testing’ shows that a significant number of inmates are carrying the AIDS virus,” Gore said, “we may have to find ways of segregating those inmates.”

As it stands, “15 of the state’s 17 prisons have the ability to segregate up to 500 inmates in one place,” Gore said.

In California, a total of 388 state prison inmates have been diagnosed with AIDS, and 39 have died in custody since 1984, Khoury said. The highest inmate infection rate is in New York, where 532 cases of AIDS have been diagnosed in the same period, he said.

About 68% of AIDS-infected inmates in California were intravenous drug abusers, Khoury said. About 72% of those were diagnosed in the first 18 months of incarceration, suggesting “that most came to prison with the infection,” he added.

Hospital on Grounds

Gore said the Chino prison was selected for the second AIDS unit because it has an accredited hospital on the grounds and because “68% of all inmates in the state with AIDS are from Southern California.”

The decision to build the unit here, announced last year, initially angered residents and elected officials, who said they feared that it would expose rescue and safety personnel to increased risk.

The controversy subsided in December, when Corrections Department officials said “it was not their intention to increase the AIDS inmate population beyond 200,” Chino City Manager Robert Rowe said. “They also promised that if they change those plans they will advise the city of Chino and discussions will be held.”

The first AIDS inmates to be housed at the Del Norte unit will be 14 men now being treated at the Chino prison hospital, said prison Capt. Lori DiCarlo. Additional AIDS inmates will be transfered here from Vacaville and other prisons in June.

Inside the unit, inmates will have a nursing staff on duty 24 hours a day and access to a psychologist, DiCarlo said. Food will be prepared in the unit’s own kitchen and delivered to inmates. Inmates of the AIDS unit will have a segregated recreation area, which will include weights and a basketball court. The AIDS unit is separated from the rest of the prison by an 8-foot fence.

Under a contract, Riverside General Hospital will accept critically ill AIDS patients from the prison who cannot be treated effectively at the prison hospital, DiCarlo said.

Special Training

Correctional officers and other staff members assigned to the unit are receiving special training, will carry protective gloves in pouches on their belts and have quick access to face shields and “special purpose coveralls,” DiCarlo said.

AIDS, or acquired immune deficiency syndrome, is a blood-borne disease that destroy’s the body’s immune system, leaving it powerless against certain cancers and otherwise rare infections. It is commonly transmitted through anal and vaginal intercourse, through the sharing of unsterilized hypodermic needles and by mother to fetus during pregnancy. Physicians say it cannot be transmitted through casual contact.

While AIDS inmates are generally low-key and not known for causing problems, they will be kept segregated for their own protection, Gore said. “At Vacaville, I have seen inmates throw trash on them and scream at them--and the threats sound real.”

For this reason, Chino prison officials have considered covering the fence surrounding the Del Norte unit with an “opaque blind” to keep the AIDS patients out of view of other inmates in the adjacent prison yard.

“Most inmates here can’t seem to accept it (the AIDS ward) yet . . . but it will be a reality next week,” said correctional officer Ron Lopez. “A few have said, ‘Don’t let them in the yard.’ ”

A sign hung on the entrance gate of the Del Norte unit sends a similar message to those in the prison yard. In large black letters it says: “Out of Bounds.”

FO(Southland Edition) Prison Capt. Lori DiCarlo said inmates will have a nursing staff on duty 24 hours a day.