Fall 2023
The Health Not Prisons Collective is an intersectional national initiative launched in 2020 by Counter Narrative Project (CNP), Positive Women’s Network – USA (PWN), Sero Project, Transgender Law Center (TLC), and the U.S. Caucus of People Living with HIV (the HIV Caucus) — longtime collaborators led by, and accountable to, communities most affected by HIV criminalization in the United States.
The Health Not Prisons Dispatch is a quarterly bulletin highlighting recent developments relevant to criminalization and policing of people living with HIV in the United States, along with upcoming events, relevant resources, and opportunities to get involved. For more information, email Elena Ferguson at hnp@pwn-usa.org.
Collective Updates
HINAC 5 at a Glance
3 HNP partner organizations on the HINAC planning committee
3 HNP Advocates on the ground
3 Workshops
3 Plenary Sessions
3 Institutes
HNP kicked off the summer with a bang by attending the 5th annual HIV is Not a Crime Training Academy (HINAC 5) in Emory, Virginia in June. The academy served as a great opportunity to build community, connect with advocates across the world, and reground ourselves in why we do this work. You can find a comprehensive list of all of the sessions that HNP participated in here and a link to watch those sessions on the HINAC 5 Youtube page here. To see pictures from our time at HINAC 5, check out the new News and Media tab on the HNP website.
HNP at USCHA
HNP was also present at the United States Conference on HIV/AIDS (USCHA) in September in Washington, D.C. HNP partner organizations lead workshops on topics ranging from molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) and status neutral to legal literacy. Sero co-executive director, Kamaria Laffrey, along with PWN policy director, Kelly Flannery led a demonstration to draw attention to the US PLHIV Caucus long-standing human rights concerns about MHS.
Remember to register for our ongoing Policy & Advocacy Training Webinar series below! All recordings from past webinars can be found on PWN’s Facebook page.
Partnership Updates
The Sero Project also had something big to celebrate in September, with the release of Kerry Thomas from an Idaho state correctional facility! Kerry was originally sentenced in 2009 to two consecutive 15-year terms under Idaho’s HIV criminalization law and was ineligible for parole until he had served 20 years. Kerry will now officially join Sero Project staff. To hear more of Kerry’s story, check out this video!
In the first of a two-part webinar series, Sero Project Co-Executive Director, Kamaria Laffrey moderated a discussion entitled, Centering Sex Work Series #1, with Tori Cooper and Kate D’Adamo.
The Counter Narrative Project’s blog, The Reckoning, continues to bring readers the most thought-provoking pieces about the Black LGBTQI+ community. In August, CNP published two standout pieces, “At 50, We Need Hip-Hop To Reignite Its Advocacy for HIV Awareness,” in recognition of the 50th anniversary of hip-hop and “Why I think Cop City will be disastrous for Atlanta’s Black Queer Community” to amplify the call to #StopCopCity.
The U.S. PLHIV Caucus also kept their members and allies educated on the latest news affecting people living with HIV. In August and September, the Caucus hosted community conversations on the recent proposed HIV funding budget cuts and quality of life for people living with HIV.
Congratulations to our colleagues at the Transgender Law Center and their partners at the ACLU and ACLU-TN on the successful filing of a new lawsuit challenging Tennessee's Aggravated Prostitution (AP) statute and its related sex offender registration requirements.. You can read more about the lawsuit here.
National Updates
A very special shoutout to Tiommi Luckett, senior national organizer at Transgender Law Center! Tiommi was sworn in as a new member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS (PACHA) council along with 12 other people at the 78th full council meeting in Charleston, West Virginia. Congrats Tiommi!
In legal news, Lambda Legal announced in late May that they would be filing a lawsuit to target the last remaining ban preventing people living with HIV from joining any branch of the U.S. Armed Services. Good luck to the Lambda Legal team!
Decriminalization Efforts at the State Level
HIV Decriminalization
The Williams Institute released their latest report on HIV criminalization, this time focusing on Arkansas. To hear a quick breakdown of the report, check out CNP’s latest reel on Instagram and TikTok.
In Kentucky, a historic bill, HB 349, which removes felony penalties for people living with HIV who donate organs, skin or other human tissue and decriminalizes the possession or use of HIV self-tests went into effect on June 30th.
In Louisiana, an important Study Resolution to assess community opinion on HIV criminalization laws in Louisiana, HR 130, passed. The bill was a key win for the Louisiana Coalition on Criminalization and Health (LCCH). The Study contains two components that will be conducted in each of LA's nine health regions: (1) peer-led focus groups for PLHIV, and (2) community-based education for all. The goal of this resolution is to bring awareness to HIV criminalization and educate the community and legislators on the need for modernization or repeal.
In Missouri, a transgender woman living with HIV who was held for 6 years in solitary confinement in a state correctional center filed a lawsuit against the Missouri Department of Corrections (MDOC). HNP condemns the discriminatory practices of MDOC. To learn more about HIV criminalization in Missouri, check out the 2020 Williams Institute report.
In Pennsylvania, the AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania released their new report The Weight of Science: Pushing Back on HIV Criminalization in Pennsylvania (2023), The report was created in collaboration with the Pennsylvania HIV Justice Alliance, the coalition that is working to end HIV criminalization in Pennsylvania.
Global News
In late September, in a landmark ruling, a high court in Kenya ruled that the forced sterilization of four women living with HIV constituted a violation of their fundamental rights. You can read more in Kelin here.
In June, advocates continued to call for the decriminalization of sex work in Ireland. The Department of Justice report that studied the 2017 that criminalized sex work, has been stalled since 2022. To learn more, you can read Erin Kilbride’s piece in Human Rights Watch.
Last quarter’s dispatch included information about a new anti-LGBTQ Ugandan law that outlaws and severely punishes same-sex sexual activity. To read more about how an LGBTQ clinic is navigating the changes associated with the bill’s passage, check out this piece in Vox.
Resources from the Field
Watch/Listen
To learn more about the family policing system and the call to abolish it, check out UpEND Movement’s new podcast.
Check out HNP’s very own Tennessee advocate, Lashanda Salinas, in a Vice video. Lashanda discusses her own experiences with HIV criminalization and her advocacy efforts to modernize the HIV criminalization laws in Tennessee. Congrats Lashanda!
Read
The work to end HIV criminalization cannot be divorced from other efforts to end criminalization in other sectors of public health. To dive deeper into the Beyond Do No Harm Network, check out Maria Thomas’ article in The Forge.
Pregnancy Justice published a new report that reveals alarming rates of pregnancy criminalization in the post-Dobbs reality.
There is no doubt that criminalizing HIV contributes to more HIV stigma. To dive deeper into HIV stigma, check out GLAAD’s latest report.