Who is the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition?

Our mission is to reverse the trend of mass incarceration in Colorado. We are a coalition of nearly 7,000 individual members and over 100 faith and community organizations who have united to stop perpetual prison expansion in Colorado through policy and sentence reform.

Our chief areas of interest include drug policy reform, women in prison, racial injustice, the impact of incarceration on children and families, the problems associated with re-entry and stopping the practice of using private prisons in our state.

If you would like to be involved please go to our website and become a member.


Wednesday, March 21, 2007

Hepatitis C Raging Through Prisons

AP REPORT
The most dangerous thing coming out of prison these days might be something most convicts don't even know they have: hepatitis C.

Nobody knows how many inmates have the disease; by some estimates, about 40 percent of the 2.2 million in jail and prison are infected, compared with 2 percent of the overall population.

Eventually, when these inmates are released, medical experts predict they will be a crushing burden on the health care system, perhaps killing as many people as AIDS in years to come. At the same time, they will be carriers, spreading the disease.

Hepatitis C can be treated, but many prisons do not test for it. Among the reasons: Budgets are tight and treatment is expensive. So prison officials close their eyes to the gathering emergency and pass it along to the outside world.

Baltimore Sun Article here

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