Poor Prisons Creating HIV Time-Bomb: U.N.

On Thursday, the head of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) warned the spread of HIV through drug use in prisons around the world is a "health bomb." When infected inmates are released, they pose a risk to the communities they return to, said Antonio Maria Costa.

Around 30 million people globally are incarcerated at any given time, and HIV is a severe problem in prisons, according to UNODC. If prisons are a reflection of society as a whole, "we are seeing a disaster around the world," said Costa.

Overcrowding is a serious problem, especially in Africa and Central America. Some prisons in these regions house up to 10 times the number of inmates they were built for, said UNODC. One facility Costa visited in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, was built for 420 prisoners but contained around 4,000. Inmates there had to stand because the cells were so crowded and had nowhere to sleep, he noted.

Costa said countries should follow UN guidelines on how prisons should be run and how inmates should be treated. In addition, the problem of overcrowding can be eased by alternative punishments for minor crimes, he said.

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