SACRAMENTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), today expressed its profound disappointment with California Governor Jerry Brown for his veto of California Assembly Bill 999 (Rob Bonta, D—District 18, representing Oakland, Alameda and San Leandro)—The Prisoner Protections for Family and Community Health Act—a bill that would have required California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation to develop a 5-year plan to extend the availability of condoms in all California prisons. The bill cleared the Legislature in Sacramento in mid-September at which time AHF urged Governor Brown to quickly sign AB 999 into law.
“We are extremely disappointed that Governor Brown vetoed AB 999, a fairly prudent health measure intended to protect inmates as well as their post-incarceration partners—often, wives and girlfriends—from possible transmission of HIV and other STDs,” said Michael Weinstein, President of AIDS Healthcare Foundation. “Existing condom distribution programs in jails in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, San Francisco and Los Angeles already demonstrate that this California law could work without threatening safety and security in the state’s correctional facilities. Brown now joins dubious company with former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who vetoed two prior similar condoms in prisons bills during his tenure.”
A strong supporter of AB 999, AHF was a formal sponsor of the two prior condoms in prisons bills: AB 1334 (Swanson, D-Oakland) in 2007 and AB 1677 (Koretz, D-W. Hollywood) in 2005, both of which were vetoed by Schwarzenegger.
“With Schwarzenegger, we were disappointed but less surprised—and heartened that he was criticized widely in the press for his vetoes,” added Weinstein. “We hope that Governor Brown will be held similarly accountable for his shortsighted veto of AB 999.”
In October 2006, the Los Angeles Times chided Governor Schwarzenegger in an editorial titled ‘In Prison, But Unprotected’ for vetoing a similar condoms in prisons bill (AB 1977) authored and carried by then Assemblymember Paul Koretz.
About AIDS Healthcare Foundation
AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), the largest global AIDS organization, currently provides medical care and/or services to more than 230,000 individuals in 31 countries worldwide in the US, Africa, Latin America/Caribbean, the Asia/Pacific Region and Eastern Europe. To learn more about AHF, please visit our website: www.aidshealth.org, find us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/aidshealth and follow us on Twitter: @aidshealthcare.
