Bill > H1353

This bill establishes a voluntary, anonymous HIV testing procedure for all prisoners in correctional institutions within the Commonwealth, allowing them to request testing at least once a year. The testing will be conducted using home testing kits provided by health services staff, with designated mailboxes marked with a red cross and labeled in English and Spanish for kit deposit, emptied daily between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m. Test results will be posted securely in accessible locations in both languages and reported to the commissioner of public health. Prisoners who participate in this program will receive a thirty-day reduction in their sentence for each year of participation, calculated on a day-for-day basis, which cannot be forfeited unless a prisoner is proven to have a positive indication of illicit drug use through a blood test or photographic evidence of recent hypodermic needle use, in which case they will be subject to immediate HIV testing and potential forfeiture of accumulated sentence reductions after due process. Employees who violate any conditions of this HIV testing program face fines of up to $5,000 or imprisonment for six months to two and a half years.