Catapulting Condoms
Imprisoned for crime, sentenced to risk
Joining a European day of action, alongside protests in Paris and Berlin, Act Up chapters across England protested against government restrictions prohibiting condoms, clean injecting works and needle sterilising equipment into penal institutions.
Protestors demanded that European governments followed guidelines laid down by the World Health Organisation on HIV and AIDS in prisons.
A number of the protests involved catapulting condoms over the boundary walls of local prisons. Whilst sex between men was highly stigmatised within male prison populations, prisoners were reporting that sex regularly occurred, and rarely with condoms.
Prison doctors argued that condoms were available in special circumstances – but these had to be requested from the doctor, rather than being easily available. Prison authorities said that making condoms available could lead to their misuse – drugs could be hidden in condoms and inserted inside the body, it was claimed.
There was never any real hope that the condoms being catapulted over the prison walls would make it into the hands of the prisoners: prison staff could be heard on the other side of the walls hastily retrieving the packets that were being sent over.
Once the police had been alerted, the catapults were confiscated and activists were left trying to throw the remaining condoms over the wall by hand.
Standing up for the rights of prisoners is never a popular cause, and the media coverage of the protests focused on whether giving prisoners condoms would "facilitate" sex between them. Activists made it clear that each of those prisoners were human beings and human beings who would return back to their families and communities. HIV prevention resources in prisons were not only a fundamental issues of human rights for those prisoners but also a sensible public health strategy.
Whilst largely a symbolic protest, the actions strengthened activists' arguments that HIV prevention needed to be available to everyone who needed it: prisoners, sex workers, people using drugs, men who have sex with men.
