The PJP Update, Positive Justice Project (September 2018)

CHLP Presents with State Advocates at the Equality Federation’s Annual Leadership Summit in New Orleans

CHLP Staff Attorney Kate Boulton and National Community Outreach Coordinator Arpita Appannagari traveled to New Orleans to attend Equality Federation’s Leadership Conference, a three-day conference that brought together advocates from across the U.S. to strategize and learn about policy issues affecting the LGBTQ community. Kate and Arpita presented on a panel HIV with Eric Paulk from the Georgia HIV Justice Coalition, Mandisa Moore-O’Neal from the Louisiana Coalition on Criminalization and Health, and Kim Welter from the Ohio Health Modernization Movement. The theme of the panel was effective national-local collaborations in efforts to reform HIV criminal laws. State advocates were able to share their unique perspective and learn from each other’s experiences, as well as build the capacity of people in the room who may want to mobilize around HIV criminal law reform in their own states.
 

National Organizations Working in HIV, Criminal Justice, and Racial Justice Release a Call to Action Around U=U and HIV Criminal Law Reform

Marking one year since the Consensus Statement on “Treatment as Prevention” in HIV Criminal Law Reform was released, CHLP, Black AIDS Institute, The Counter Narrative Project, Positive Women’s Network, Prevention Access Campaign/U=U, and The Sero Project collectively drafted and released A Call to Action for Racial Justice in HIV Criminal Law Reform. The statement underscores the need for a strong, concrete commitment to racial justice in our work through acknowledgment of the harm to Black PLHIV that will follow from reliance on viral suppression as a basis for criminal law reform. The powerful message of U=U is critical to the HIV movement, but the data on disparities across the HIV care continuum bears out that if HIV criminal reform hinges on viral suppression, Black PLHIV will be the most negatively affected. Building racial justice into our work requires that we do not use viral detectability as a bartering tool in HIV criminal law reform strategies. Click here to read or endorse the original Consensus Statement on “Treatment as Prevention” in HIV Criminal Law Reform.
 

CHLP Partners with the Harm Reduction Coalition and National Viral Hepatitis Roundtable to Strategize and Mobilize around the Criminalization of Viral Hepatitis

CHLP, HRC, and NVHR worked together to draft and release a one-page fact sheet on the criminalization of viral hepatitis in the United States—more than a dozen states have laws that criminalize exposure to hepatitis as well as HIV. Many of these states also restrict patients from accessing care and limit the availability of syringe services programs (SSPs) for active drug users—a problem exacerbated by the growing opioid epidemic in many parts of the country. Along with the release of this fact sheet, CHLP, HRC, and NVHR will present a joint webinar on this topic on Thursday, October 4 at 3pm ET and announced the first national convening on viral hepatitis criminalization in the United States to be held in November. 
 

CHLP Staff Kate Boulton and Arpita Appannagari Respond to Expert Consensus Statement on the Science of HIV

CHLP Staff Attorney Kate Boulton and National Community Outreach Coordinator Arpita Appannagari penned a blog on the Expert consensus statement on the science of HIV in the context of criminal law, which was published in the Journal of the International AIDS Society to coincide with July's International AIDS Conference (AIDS 2018) in Amsterdam. The statement was developed by leading scientists to address the use of HIV science in the criminal justice system. Kate and Arpita's blog acknowledges the usefulness of the statement as a synthesis of current scientific knowledge, but challenges its seeming assent to the underlying legitimacy of HIV criminalization, as long as prosecutions are scientifically sound. Read the blog here.

Most states are not currently in legislative session but state advocates continue to meet and strategize around HIV criminal law reform.

State Working Group Information

CHLP’s assistance in criminal cases includes counseling defendants and their families, providing legal and trial strategy support to criminal defense attorneys, identifying and assisting with preparation of medical and scientific experts, drafting sections of court submissions, and submitting friend-of-the-court briefs. 

If you are aware of anyone charged in an HIV exposure or transmission case, please refer them to our website, www.hivlawandpolicy.org and/or have them or their lawyer, contact CHLP for assistance at 212-430-6733 or [email protected].