2. He engaged in sexual acts while incarcerated.
A long prison stint may lead a young, disconnected inmate to do desperate things for survival, sometimes his hand is forced, as in the case of prison rape. Other times, the sex act is consensual: “Inquiries into consensual sex have reported participation rates ranging from 25 to 65 percent,” noted James E. Robertson, J.D., M.A., Dip., in Rape Among Incarcerated Men: Sex, Coercion and STDs. “Sexual practices that are outwardly consensual, however, are usually bounded by fear, threat, and intimidation.”
Depending on the experience, the inmate may continue to engage in sex with men on the outside; this has resulted in a health and safety concern for the black community.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Justice statistics, African American males accounted for 6 percent of the total U.S. population but a whopping 40 percent of the total prison and jail population in 2009. Avert.org states: “Many other previous studies had already shown that incarcerated men were at a higher risk of being exposed to HIV/AIDS via male-to-male sex while incarcerated, and as a result those who contracted the virus, later went on to infect their partners upon release from jail.”
