why give prisoners condoms?

Source: The Monitor

July 20, 2006: I read with compassion the struggle of Uganda's prisons authorities to curb the spread of AIDS.
The sodomy rape of Benjamin Buloba, which led to his untimely death, was highlighted.

In light of this tragedy, it seems that UNAIDS is again urging the officials to give condoms to prisoners.

Wait a minute; here is a global agency asking that our government abet the raping of other prisoners by providing them with condoms. All in the name of AIDS prevention! If it was not so tragic it would be a joke.
Welcome to Luzira, here is your daily supply of condoms so you can rape each other without giving each other AIDS.

First, a rapist does not really care that he uses a condoms or not. So giving a condom is of virtually no use whatsoever. It is however seen as the state mandating and enabling the ongoing rape of its prisoner populations.
A case of abuse can actually be brought by the families of those who have been raped and killed against the provider of those condoms.

Secondly, condoms are of diminished help when it comes to usage in homosexual encounters. Unlike the female sexual reproductive genitalia, the very nature of the rectum is not designed for internal reception.

It was designed for external ejection of bowel movements. It is does not have natural rubricants and can easily bleed with friction. This is what leads to many homosexual victims to bleed profusedly. It is totally unacceptable for UNAIDS to suggest that we give condoms to prisoners.

What we need to do, is to come up with strong institutional and prisoner community programs which will make sure that rape does not happen at all. There a many fine programs which have changed the prison systems.
One of this is chuch colson prison fellowship international. We dont need to invest more into condoms, rather we need to invest into prison staff and prisoner welfare.

Martin Ssempa, M Sc.
Global AIDS Prevention (GAP)
ssempam@gmail.com