Kathryn Canty Has Been Barred From Work

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Kathryn Canty should be allowed to be in a work release program. The Alabama inmate has less than three years to serve on her sentence, good behavior and a degree in accounting. She also have a virus that bars her from the program. HIV.

In Alabama inmates with HIV are not allowed to work outside of the prison system. Part of that ruling has to do with a 2004 settlement that requires the prison to visibly watch prisoners take their AIDS pills. Another reason according to Ruth Naglich, the department’s associate commissioner of health services, is that allowing the prisoners to work outside the prison walls would expose them to illnesses and spread the AIDS virus.

In Alabama there are 15 people in the women’s prison system with HIV and 278 in the men’s medical ward. Only a few of those are otherwise eligible for work release programs.

Work release ultimately “means less crime, fewer people returning to prison and ultimately it means a safer society for everybody,” said David Fathi, director of the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch. “So by denying work release to inmates with HIV who would otherwise be eligible, Alabama is shooting itself in the foot.”

Canty has completed courses on anger management, professional development and commercial interior design. She has three times, once each year from 2005 for the work release program only to be turned down each time.

In Alabama work release allows prisoners to work and earn money while returning to their cells at night. They are allowed to wear street clothes during the day.

“I’m a worker,” said Canty, who finishes her 4 1/2-year sentence for forgery and theft next month. “Work release would have been a great help for me to catch up with technology as well as saving money to get back on my feet.”

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