March 2021

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.

HNP prioritizes authentic engagement, activation, training, and leadership rooted in our principles and deep investment in our communities. To that end, we want to hear from you! For more information about the coalition, ways to get involved, or efforts you would like to see the Collective support, email Tyler Barbarin at tyler@pwn-usa.org.

Virginia

PWN and Sero have helped to advance Senate Bill 1138 (SB1138), a bill that modernizes Virginia’s HIV criminalization laws. It has passed both the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates and is now headed to the governor’s desk. If he signs it, it will become law.

PWN Virginia State Lead Deirdre Johnson, who is also the co-founder of Ending Criminalization of HIV and Overincarceration (ECHO VA) coalition, PWN Policy Director Breanna Diaz and Policy Associate Tyler Barbarin, Equality Virginia, and the Sero Project have dedicated countless hours to meeting with community stakeholders and supporting organizations, drafting bill language, and reaching out to and meeting with state legislators to make this happen.

Unfortunately, in order to pass through the House of Delegates, an amendment was made to the bill that reinstated a felony charge for cases where intent can be proven and where actual transmission occurred. (The existing law does not require transmission.) The original bill scrapped all criminal penalties for full repeal; the bill was first amended in the state senate to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor.

While the final bill that passed sets a higher bar for prosecution (proving both intent and transmission) and is, therefore, an improvement over the existing law, PWN, and our partners are extremely disappointed in the Virginia legislature’s insistence on retaining a felony, which can destroy the lives of the accused and their family. Criminalization is never an effective public health strategy and disproportionately impacts marginalized communities. We will advocate for this felony to be eliminated in the future.

Missouri

PWN and Sero are proud members of the Missouri HIV Justice Coalition, which is working on two HIV modernization bills: House Bill 755 (HB755) and Senate Bill 65 (SB65).

HB755 modifies the laws that are available to prosecute HIV in Missouri by restricting the list of activities that can be considered for exposure and requires intent to transmit. There is also an added requirement for transmission and taking into account measures that can be taken to lessen or eliminate the risk of transmission.

SB65 updates the state’s blood, organ, and tissue donation laws that criminalize those with HIV who attempt to donate these materials.

Both of these bills adjust the Missouri code to be reflective of modern science and current understanding of HIV. These bills, in combination, offer protections for people living with HIV so they are not vulnerable to the particularly punitive punishments that currently exist under Missouri law.

For more information on HIV decriminalization efforts in Missouri and SB65 and HB755, please click here.

New York

Earlier this year, New York enacted legislation prohibiting law enforcement from accessing contact tracing data and using it for criminalization purposes. The law, Senate Bill S8450C, provides for the confidentiality of contact tracing information from the identification of individuals who have come in contact with an individual with a confirmed or probable diagnosis of novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

A major achievement of this law is that it bans law enforcement from being activated as contact tracers and prevents them from accessing contact tracing data and using it to criminalize during the COVID-19 pandemic. We know from research, such as the COVID-19 Policing Project linked here, that BIPOC people have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 criminalization.

The NY Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) led the effort and has created this one-pager on the implementation of the bill; you can read more about it here. Learn more about contact tracing protections in New York state here.  

Georgia

Upcoming Events & Opportunities

  • The Transgender Law Center is looking to fill several staff and intern positions: communications manager, migrant justice fellow, national organizer, national organizing fellow, legal services project intern, and temporary staff attorney. There are also a couple of volunteer opportunities: for attorneys, the legal resistance network, and for community members, joining the community resistance network. Please find more information on the positions and how to apply here.

  • Breanna Diaz, Policy Director for the Positive Women’s Network-USA, is co-leading a Texas Bar Association CLE on COVID-19 and HIV Criminalization with Scott Schoettes of Lambda Legal. This training will be a part of a webcast on “Handling Your First (or Next) Civil Rights Case” on March 26. You can register here.

  • AIDSWatch is a conference that was started to serve as a vehicle by which people living with and affected by HIV could speak their truth in the halls of power in Washington, D.C., and demand that Congress protect their rights and honor their struggle. This year, join AIDSWatch 2021 to speak truth to power virtually from all across the country to our new administration and Congress, bringing us all closer to ending this epidemic. Find more information on AIDS Watch and how to register for the conference here.

Resources from the Field

  • The Transgender Law Center recently launched their Trans Agenda for Liberation. As part of the agenda, TLC puts out a call for the end to the stigmatization and criminalization of HIV.

  • HIV is Not a Crime IV, the fourth national training academy to educate and train people living with HIV, activists, stakeholders, and policy leaders to mobilize state-level advocacy to end HIV-related criminalization, was originally scheduled to be held May 30-June 2, 2020, at The Ohio State University in Columbus, OH. Due to Covid, the HINAC executive committee had to make the tough decision to host HINAC IV virtually June 7 – 10, 2021. Find more information and registration details for HINAC here.

  • The U.S. PLHIV Caucus hosted a public dialogue at the intersection of the HIV & COVID-19pandemics. It aimed to disrupt expert and policy discourse on HIV surveillance, which largely excludes the voices of people and communities affected by HIV. Watch here: Road to HIV is Not a Crime 4 Webinar Series: Centering Lived and Living Surveillance and Diagnosis.

Published: March 2021

National Updates

Charles Stephens, executive director of the Counter Narrative Project, is co-chair of a Georgia coalition championing an HIV modernization law for the state. Senate Bill 164 modernizes laws and repeals conflicting laws to allow for policy to support public health interests.

This bill is a bipartisan effort to address stigma and bad science that currently informs Georgia law. If passed, it will remove criminal penalties for people living with HIV who share needles, donate blood or spit at or use bodily fluids on police and corrections officers.

SB164 takes a stand against HIV stigma by updating the language in the statutes to “person living with HIV” instead of “an HIV infected person.”

Read more about efforts to modernize Georgia’s HIV criminalization laws here.

In December 2020, some HNP member organizations submitted comments on the draft HIV National Strategic Plan 2021-2025.

Comments submitted by the U.S. People Living with HIV Caucus and Positive Women’s Network – USA called for meaningful involvement of people living with HIV in the domestic plan and focused on elevating racial justice in the HIV response as well as ensuring accountability to transgender people living with HIV.

Both sets of comments also take a strong stance against the use of molecular HIV surveillance (MHS) technology in the public health response due to myriad human rights violations.

PWN’s letter also called for an Office of National AIDS Policy that is led and staffed by individuals representing communities most impacted by the U.S. epidemic and an increased focus on sex worker rights and immigrant communities in the domestic HIV response. Read the full comment by the Caucus here and PWN’s comment here.

Unfortunately, the final plan, released shortly before inauguration day, does not adequately address the concerns raised by PWN and the Caucus. We look forward to more opportunities to work with the administration as representatives of the communities most impacted by the HIV epidemic as the Biden-Harris administration works to achieve equity and justice within public health.

Read the full version of the HIV National Strategic Plan here.

Decriminalization Efforts at the State Level

State legislative sessions are underway and HNP partners are actively working in multiple states to advance legislation to repeal or modernize HIV criminalization laws. These legislative advocacy efforts are part of a strategy to remove the institutionalized stigma associated with HIV and to remove carcerality from public health responses.