Prison AIDS prevention hampered by overcrowding

Overcrowding has hampered efforts by the South African Correctional Services to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS within the country's prisons, correctional services minister, Ben Skhosana, said. During the department's recent World AIDS Day commemoration ceremony, Skhosana said although the department had made strides in the fight against HIV/AIDS, some prisoners still became infected while serving their prison terms. Skhosana was quoted by the South African Broadcasting Corporation as saying: "Because of the close proximity in prison, and the nature of the situation and overcrowding, and with the type of violence we find in prisons, they do infect each other." Research shows that out of the 180,000 prisoners in South African jails, an estimated 6,000 are living with HIV/AIDS.