Botswana: Still No Condoms for Prisoners

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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)

3 March 2008
Posted to the web 3 March 2008

Mogomotsi Moloi

Although there have been reported cases of prisoners engaging in unlawful sexual activities that expose them to the risk of HIV/AIDS, prison authorities insist they cannot distribute condoms to inmates.

Senior Assistant Commissioner of Prisons, Anthony Mokento says condoms are meant to facilitate safe sex and in prison, sexual relations are not allowed. "Prisoners of one sex are kept separately from those of the opposite sex. Hence, it is not possible for prisoners to engage in heterosexual relations," he said.

The prison boss stated that distributing condoms to prisoners will encourage them to engage in homosexuality, which is, itself a proscribed conduct. "Therefore officers giving condoms to prisoners would be committing a criminal offence of aiding or abetting prisoners to engage in an illegal act."

However, he said they receive complaints of unlawful conduct related to sexual activities by prisoners. He stated that what hinders the successful prosecution of nearly all cases is insufficient evidence. He denied that there is consensual sex in prison.

He said there is no compulsory HIV/AIDS testing for prisoners and no study has been done to determine the extent of HIV/AIDS in prisons.

Mokento pointed out that the strategies used for combating the pandemic in prisons are essentially similar to those used nationally. The strategies involve health education, HIV/AIDS Voluntary Counseling and Testing, HIV/AIDS fairs, Peer Education and workshops. Mokento said they discourage prisoners from sharing razor blades.

Meanwhile, a former inmate who went to prison without HIV has come out with the virus from Francistown prison. Well-known former inmate Chaba Obonye, a reformed man now into Hip Hop music, confessed that homosexuality is rife in prisons.

Gaborone-based Botswana Network on Ethics, Law and HIV/AIDS (BONELA) says the argument for giving prisoners access to condoms has intensified.

"While it is noted that providing condoms to prisoners as a preventive measure may seem unacceptable to many, Botswana's recognition of condoms as an effective means of preventing HIV transmission makes it imperative that prisoners have access to condoms, as do non-prisoner members of society," argues BONELA.

In its newly released book titled Realising Botswana's Vision To Stop HIV/AIDS By 2016; The Need For A Pragmatic Approach To Provide Condoms In Prisons - BONELA states that the need to distribute condoms among inmates becomes particularly crucial in view of the unassailable evidence that voluntary and involuntary sex, occur among inmates of Botswana prisons and that their sexual activities contribute to the spread of HIV.

The author of the 54-paged book is one Babafemi Odunsi.

The writer laments that prisoners are denied their rights even to good health. BONELA says prisoners are in prison as punishment, not for punishment. "Therefore, a person's loss of the right to liberty through prison confinement should not have harmful effects on the health of such a person."

BONELA's findings indicate that around the world, prisoners have long been identified to be particularly vulnerable to HIV and other serious diseases. In Botswana, studies have shown that the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis tends to be higher among prisoners than non-prisoners.

BONELA insists that going to prison does not mean that one should lose his or her right to good health. No sentence for a crime includes HIV infection. BONELA says that though there are no statistics in Botswana, local inmates are vulnerable to HIV infections. This is partly due to the absence of condoms in prisons, voluntary and forced sex, violence, harmful prison conditions and ineffective HIV education.

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