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A recent report claims that Australian prisons are a major source of hepatitis C, but little is being done in jails to prevent the disease spreading. A recent report claims that Australian prisons are a major source of hepatitis C. Over one in three men and two out of three women in our jails have the virus. Large numbers continue to inject drugs on the inside with shared needles and one in five prisoners receive a tattoo while in jail - again from unsafe equipment. So the chances are high that if someone comes into jail hepatitis C negative, they'll catch it while in. In addition, treatment which could eliminate the virus is not given much at all. And since no courts sentence prisoners to liver failure and taxpayers aren't paying for jails to spread hep C outside prison, you'd think something should be done. Yet, there are no needle exchange programmes despite overseas experience showing they don't encourage needles to be used as weapons. Methadone programmes which reduce the need for injecting are also thin on the ground and having tattoo parlours would no doubt send the shock jocks into apoplexy. Yet to protect the rest of us as well as giving prisoners some basic rights perhaps this situation needs more thought.
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