Coordinator

he South Australian prison system is relatively small with a total of 966 prisoners accommodated in eight institutions ranging from a maximum security institution at Yatala Labour Prison (264 prisoners) to an open prison farm at Cadell (125 prisoners). Initial fears in South Australia about HIV/AIDS were expressed as early as 1983 when a union shop steward wrote to the Manager of Yatala Labour Prison on the subject of 'suggested preventive measures to overcome officer exposure to AIDS disease'. In 1984 information sessions and a video were made available to staff, but it was not until June 1985 that an identified HIV seropositive person was known to be in prison. Prior to this a voluntary blood testing program had been established by the Prison Medical Service with considerable success