PASAN: Info Bulletin #6: "Like a Dog in a Back Kennel": Death Exposes Treatment of Prisoners Living with HIV/AIDS

PASAN is a community-based network and organization, formed in 1991, that provides education, support and advocacy to prisoners and their families on HIV/AIDS and related issues. This sixth information bulletin describes the case of Billy Bell, who died of AIDS after receiving severely inadequate health care in the prison system. A Coroner's Inquest was held in 1997, in which PASAN helped to represent Bell's case. The jury was critical of Correctional Service Canada's treatment of Bell, and made recommendations that the CSC upgrade its palliative care approach; make HIV testing anonymous and accessible; consider needle exchange programs; and increase the role of the palliative care team in parole hearings under the Compassionate Release Program for prisoners with terminal illness.