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China Exclusive: Jailed with HIV -- a struggle against despair (3) |
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20:32, July 09, 2007 |
Keen to protect their staff, the prison authorities ordered the guards to wear head-to-toe protective clothing and had a glass shield set up in the conversation room.
"But we found it extremely hard to talk to inmates when we appeared behind a glass wall dressed like medics during the SARS crisis," Fan says.
"I remember howls of despair and defiance echoing up and down the cells all day and the inmates openly challenged us," says Wu Yongchun, a colleague of Fan''s in his 20s, adding that the situation wasn''t resolved until prison guards cast off the protective clothing and their unnecessary fears.
He says that when mutual respect was restored, guards and inmates were finally able to talk face to face in a casual manner.
"Deep down, they have very low self-esteem and are desperately in need of care and concern," says Fan, hinting that these people are genuine outcasts, both as prisoners and as AIDS victims.
According to UNAIDS, the levels of HIV infection among prisoners worldwide are much higher than in the population at large.
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
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