On Aug. 29, a federal jury rejected claims against five of the seven Illinois correctional center officials accused of allowing Michael Blucker, an inmate at the Menard Correctional Center, to be raped and subsequently infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. For those of you not familiar with the story, Blucker tested positive for the HIV virus in March 1994 while in prison after being convicted on a burglary charge in 1993.

Blucker claimed that just days after arriving at Menard, he was raped by three fellow inmates. Blucker also claimed that on one occasion, prison guards brought inmates to his cell where he was raped. And during a separate incident, Blucker said that he was sent to another cell by guards where he also was raped. He said he endured the attacks because he feared for his life, and only decided to approach authorities after he was forced to smuggle marijuana. While the jury dismissed claims against five of the prison officials involved, there still are questions as to whether two of the officials, the prison’s psychiatrist and the head of the prison’s investigative unit, are guilty of any wrongdoing. Blucker claims to have notified both men of the rapes on several occasions.

There is speculation by some AIDS organizations that the HIV infection rate of America’s incarcerated may be as high as six times that of the national average. While this number does seem staggering, it cannot effectively be verified. Why? Because in most states, inmates simply aren’t tested. In fact, it has been five years since the Illinois Department of Corrections has conducted any tests to determine the frequency of HIV in inmates. Couple this with the American propensity toward revolving-door justice, and we have all the trappings of tax-fueled AIDS production on a horrifically grand scale.

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Katherine Novak, a lawyer for the Illinois Department of Corrections, said the jury’s rejection of five of the seven claims proves that the DOC policies on inmates’ safety are adequate. Perhaps Novak should have given Odie Washington, the DOC’s agency director, a call to confirm that. The very same day that Novak won her decision in an East St. Louis federal courtroom, Washington was just hours away in Springfield announcing the DOC’s decision to begin conducting tests to determine the number of HIV cases in the Illinois prison system. The DOC says that in June, a performance review conducted by five experts recommended that prisons begin testing. What did the experts find? Who were these experts, and how did they become experts? Do they have any information that is relevant to protecting the general public?

Another disturbing side to this story that must be examined is the DOC study itself. Only 2,250 inmates in a population totaling more than 40,000 will be tested. Furthermore, the majority of those tested will be new inmates. Let’s be logical. If the HIV infection rate really is six times higher in prison, then who is more likely to be carrying HIV? Prisoners with the longest tenure. Failing to test these individuals seems silly. In fact, this whole DOC study announcement seems rushed. It raises several initially obvious questions regarding the validity of its possible outcome.

Imposing mandatory HIV testing on Illinois’ prison population raises an entirely new set of moral and financial concerns for prison officials. Segregation of infected inmates and protection of prison employees are big problems that spell big money, but isn’t it more important that inmates who are released back into American communities be HIV-free?

Finally, let’s consider Michael Blucker convicted of burglary and sentenced to a slow, inevitable death.

It used to be that the biggest complaint in regard to our prison systems was that inmates were being returned to society without full rehabilitation. The only thing I can think of worse than this would be returning them without rehabilitation, and infected with HIV.