The District of Columbia Condom Distribution Program

As one of the earliest correctional systems in the country to implement an inmate condom distribution program, this initiative has proven to be highly successful as a public health safeguard and as such has served as a national model replicated in numerous penal facilities. As a unique component of the DCDOC Community-Oriented Correctional Health Care model, condoms are distributed in our halfway houses and included in our discharge packages for both male and female inmates.  An overview and relevant data will be provided on the implementation of the DCDOC condom distribution program originally begun in 1993 as part of the District of Columbia’s five-year comprehensive HIV/AIDS plan announced a year earlier. In an effort to assess the effects of the program on the prevalence and management of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) as well as the program’s impact on correctional operations, the DCDOC conducted a survey of inmates and correctional officers over a one-year period and subsequently published as a journal article ("Acceptability of Condom Availability in a U.S. Jail," John P. May & Earnest L. Williams, Jr., 2002). The results demonstrated the safety and acceptability of the program to staff and inmates, confirmed that no major security problems occurred, and gave no indication that the frequency of sex in the jail had increased.