US California Lawmaker Mulls Granting Prisoners Access to Free Condoms to Prevent Spread of STDs

A lawmaker from US California is mulling to grant prisoners access to free condoms in order to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), even if this runs smack against an already existing law prohibiting sex between inmates.

Oakland Democratic Assemblyman Rob Bonta submitted bill AB 999 which entails the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to distribute condoms in at least five prisons by 2015 and then expand this to the remaining 33 adult prisons of the state no later than 2020.

But Republican Assemblyman Dan Logue of Marysville said the proposed bill will make the lives of inmates easier, rather than repentant.

"It's a felony for prisoners to have sex while they're in prison, so I don't think it's good government for the state to encourage inmates to break the law," Mr Logue told AP.

Yes, "sexual contact between prisoners is technically illegal. But it happens, and I think we need to deal with reality as it stands," Mr Bonta told AP.

Mr Bonta's proposal comes on the heels that statistics of STDs from sex behind bars, whether forced or consensual, actually come bigger and larger compared from the general population.

AB 999 has passed the Assembly on a 44-26 vote and is just waiting consideration in the state Senate. If it does become law, California would become the second US second state, next to Vermont, to provide condoms to prisoners, although on a global scale, this is already being done in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Canada, most of the European Union, and South Africa.

According to the AP, the Vermont Department of Corrections, for 21 years now, has been providing condoms available throughout its prison system. Its inmates, currently at 2,200, can request one condom at a time from a nurse.