Comment by dragonmum | Hacker News Reader

Comment by dragonmum | Hacker News Reader

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> You might get it if you buy it yourself, and bribe the prison staff to allow you to have it.

> Sorry: this is not based on any real experience or references, just the overall assessment of how India stands currently.

Jeez, you didn't have time to search but had time to fantasize like a Hollywood script writer hashing out more 3rd world stereotypes? Perhaps we should look at the treatment and hepatitis morbidity rate in our prison system and wonder whether your stereotype may more accurately fit our own prisons rather than Indian ones.

Here: [1] http://www.delhi.gov.in/wps/wcm/connect/lib_centraljail/Cent...

[2] http://www.legalservicesindia.com/articles/pri.htm

[3] http://defensewiki.ibj.org/index.php/Right_to_Medical_Care_i...

Delhi Prisons have set up an Integrated Counseling and Testing Centre (ICTC) on 10.06.08 in Central Jail Hospital for detecting HIV positive inmates. Targeted intervention for HIV detection in inmates like injecting drug abusers / sexually promiscuous, inmates suffering from STD and inmates suffering from multiple / opportunistic infections. Total number of such inmates, tested for HIV positive test at ICTC from January,2010 to October'2010 were 1399, out of which 27 were tested HIV positive .Further 2254 inmates were tested for HBsAG and out of which 66 were found to be +ve for Hepatitis B.

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infectious_diseases_within_Ame...

While the majority of HCV infections occur outside of prison, the disease is still widespread within the prison system as a result of drug injection.[15] According to one Rhode Island prison study, HCV infection was found in 23.1% of the male prison population.[16] HCV prevention proved to be more challenging than HIV prevention because inmates partake in high-risk behaviors such as “front loading” and sharing spoons to prepare drugs like cocaine.[4] The prevalence of these diseases within prisons is a concern because they pose a potential public health risk.

[5] https://represent.us/action/private-prisons-1/

Thank you for correction; grant me at least that I knew I'm commenting based on prejudices.

Note however that I don't view the American prison system as "our" ("mine") either (I'm not from the US).

And still, what I read of Indian prison is just way, way worse than what I read about the American system. Overcrowding, horrible delays in trials, abysmal hygiene. I doubt that the HCV treatment there is very good, despite there being a counseling centre.

"In India, overcrowding has aggravated the problem of hygiene. In many jails, conditions are appalling. At the tehsil level jails, even rudimentary conveniences are not provided. Prisoners in India are not even tested for specific infectious diseases, although all prisoners undergo a medical examination when they begin serving their sentence. No studies of the prevalence of viral infections among prison inmates have been done at a national level. India’s prison manuals provide for segregation of prisoners suspected of having contagious diseases. A few jails have established informal contacts with medical and social organizations for counseling of inmates to prevent the spread of infections."

FWIW, I'm an Indian living in India, and I share your prejudices of Indian prisons. I have no direct or indirect accounts of Indian prisons.

In fact, I googled just now, and found out that a large fraction of the prisoners are sufferers of diseases that are otherwise easily treatable.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3868089/

> A total of 252 (84%) prisoners had anemia.

Clearly, some of those who belong in prisons are on the wrong side of the bars.

Oh, and also, I will never trust Indian government reports or government info websites when they are reporting about their state of affairs.

> way worse than what I read about the American system.

Is it though?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_incarcera...

- the incarceration rate of the United States of America was the highest in the world, at 716 per 100,000 of the national population.

India is 33/100k. We've got 20 times more of our own American citizens behind bars than the typical 3rd wordl country.

Your incarceration rate is a different issue from how prisoners are treated (or mistreated), particularly regarding health care in prison.

Over here (Finland), there's a popular meme about "let's put elderly people in prison, so they get a bed of their own, a daily shower, good food and someone to take care of their mental well-being". Even if our old people's care in public institutions is probably one of the better-arranged among nations.

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