Photo by figleaf (hey, that's me!). Posted under a Creative Commons license.
So the other day I gave blood, as I try to do regularly because even if I'll never end up needing blood or blood products to save my life other people frequently do.
And since I've been donating blood for a very long time I've noticed over time how the screening questions have evolved. Mostly by getting a lot longer and a lot more detailed.
And over time reading through the checklist gets to be a bit like reading the rings on an old tree or looking at stamps on an old steamer trunk or passport. This question about sharing needles reminds us, of course, of the HIV epidemic. That question about living in England or Europe since the 1980s reminds us of Mad Cow disease. Another about immigrating or having lived in Southeast Asia is an obscure clue about residual risk of Hansen's disease (a.k.a. leprosy.)
Other clues remind us of what we've learned over time about previously well-known illnesses and, sometimes, indicates tremendous advances in medical technology over the years. Transplantation of dura matter? We weren't always able to transplant brain tissue. That's kind of cool even if it too brings with it a possible risk to subsequent blood recipients of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.
And then, sometimes, there are indicators of risk that the deliverers of blood and blood products have to worry about that don't really make it into the rest of society. Even though it's kind of important.
So that's why I wanted to call out a question that showed up relatively recently in the "in the last 12 months have you..." section of the questionaire: have you "Been in juvenile detention, lockup, jail, or prison for more than 72 hours?"
Gee, I wonder why that would be in there?
I really wonder what could happen to someone in less than three days in jail, lockup, or juvenile detention that might put them at risk for donating blood?
Tags:
Well, I recently learned that
Submitted by Sungold (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-13 19:24.Well, I recently learned that I'm disqualified from donating due to having spent at least five years in one of the countries thought to be at risk for vCJD - Germany - even though I ate a 99% vegetarian diet there, which only very occasional fish and poultry and no beef. I guess the gummi bears make me a hazard (as some of my friends suggested on Facebook). The list of risks was stunningly long.
Honestly, the risks in jail are probably great right upon intake. And a stay in jail 15 months ago wouldn't necessarily mitigate risk. "12 months" seems like a magic number, just as "5 years" is for Germany.
This is one reason why HIV
Submitted by Sex Neutral (not verified) on Fri, 2011-05-13 21:10.This is one reason why HIV and other STDs are so prevelant in the African American community. The men get locked up, raped by Bubba or have consensual sex with him, then are released out into their communities again where they resume sex with women, as well as other men on the downlow coz jail got them hooked.
Its a neverending cycle.
It honestly appalls me, as a
Submitted by ozymandias (not verified) on Sat, 2011-05-14 12:02.It honestly appalls me, as a feminist, how much we assume that being raped in jail is just another part of the punishment. Vulnerable groups such as trans women and sex workers are at a very high risk of rape-- but even an "ordinary" prisoner has a risk much higher than in the rest of the population.
Not to mention when feminists (feminists!) say that male rape is extremely uncommon "outside of prison" and therefore we shouldn't worry about it... it's rape culture all the way down.
Sex Neutral: I presume you didn't mean to imply that getting homosexually raped will get one hooked to homosexual sex? I assure you, Rape Does Not Work That Way. Not to mention that you don't get 'hooked' to an orientation...
Ozymandias, you're speaking
Submitted by Sex Neutral (not verified) on Sat, 2011-05-14 19:14.Ozymandias, you're speaking from a lofty, theoretical point of view.
Some men do in fact take to liking anal sex in jail and continue it outside of jail with other men, whereas they did not go into jail doing that. You obviously are not familiar with such phenomena, but I am.
Regarding people feeling that rape is "part of the punishment" for criminals, I've only ever heard people speak that way about convicted rapists, in which case it is a form of karma.
Every action as an equal and opposite reaction. As you sow, so shall ye reap. What comes around goes around.
Karma.
Ok, I'm getting a little
Submitted by figleaf on Sat, 2011-05-14 21:16.Ok, I'm getting a little uncomfortable with this line of reasoning, SN.
Also, if you've only heard about rape as part of the punishment for convicted rapists I don't think you get out as much as you think you do. It's an extraordinarily common subject of humor for people convicted of everything from major corporate fraud on Wall St. to post-earthquake looting in New Zealand.
And not to put too fine a point on it but unless one's system of justice is still lodged firmly in the Code of Hammurabi I don't think it's at all appropriate to go all eye-for-an-eye about about the justice of rape for rapists. For one thing rape is rape and we've got more than enough of that already. For another it's tacitly rewarding the prisoner who rapes the rapist *for being a rapist!* So where's the logic in that? And finally, endorsing rape as form of punishment or social control is approving of rape, period.
figleaf
Fig, I don't endorse it.
Submitted by Sex Neutral (not verified) on Sat, 2011-05-14 22:02.Fig, I don't endorse it. That doesn't change how people feel about it. Yes, many people feel a rape for a rape is "just desserts". A kind of balancing of the scales, if you will.
This: "Every action as an
Submitted by tlt (not verified) on Sat, 2011-05-14 23:15.This:
"Every action as an equal and opposite reaction. As you sow, so shall ye reap. What comes around goes around.
Karma."
sounds an awful lot like endorsing it to me.
By that logic, any prisoner
Submitted by tu quoque (not verified) on Sun, 2011-05-15 19:33.By that logic, any prisoner that gets raped in prison should automatically and immediately be let go since that would be balancing the scales of justice and any more punishment beyond that would be overkill. In fact, they ought to also be given restitution for any time they spent in prison before they got raped as well.
SN, the questionnaire didn't
Submitted by ozymandias (not verified) on Sun, 2011-05-15 13:46.SN, the questionnaire didn't say "have you been accused of rape and kept in a detention center?", it said "have you been kept in a detention center at all?"
Not to mention that, off the top of my head, rape has been mentioned as a punishment for non-rape crimes in media as diverse as The Office (white collar crime) and Blink-182's I Won't Be Home For Christmas (beating up carolers with a baseball bat).
Also, I don't think "rape is wrong and we should put in policies to reduce the risk of it" is such an idealistic proposition...
SN, do you have any actual data related to the rates of homosexuality in raped prisoners, or failing that some expertise in the area? Or are you just expecting me to take it on your word?
Ozy: "Not to mention that you
Submitted by Sex Neutral (not verified) on Sun, 2011-05-15 16:56.Ozy: "Not to mention that you don't get 'hooked' to an orientation..."
Surely you're young enough to have gotten the memo that sexuality is "fluid"?
"SN, do you have any actual
Submitted by Sex Neutral (not verified) on Sun, 2011-05-15 17:00."SN, do you have any actual data related to the rates of homosexuality in raped prisoners, or failing that some expertise in the area? Or are you just expecting me to take it on your word?"
I've interviewed some ex cons. I've lived in a few ghettos. Sexuality is more fluid than you think. Especially when you are horny, isolated from women, and just wanna "get some" - even as a relief from you miserable, locked-up, life. An orgasm is an orgasm.
I agree that sexuality is
Submitted by ozymandias (not verified) on Sun, 2011-05-15 18:38.I agree that sexuality is fluid and I've experienced it myself; I have no doubt that a prisoner that identifies as heterosexual engaging in consensual homosexual sex and liking it is possible, and continuing it once he leaves is certainly possible. I am arguing with your notion that homosexual rape causes men to like homosexual sex; I have seen no evidence one way or the other, and my intuition/extrapolation from other cases I've read about suggests that it would actually cause an aversion.
Funny how feminists don't
Submitted by Troll King (not verified) on Sun, 2011-05-22 21:19.Funny how feminists don't want to look at the actual truth, like how most rapists in prison are female guards....which is even more true in juvenile detention centers.
Did you say "most rapists in
Submitted by figleaf on Mon, 2011-05-23 13:17.Did you say "most rapists in prison are female guards?" Heck, Troll old boy, the *real* truth is that *all* rapists in prison are female guards. In fact all rape anywhere is by female prison guards! In fact if they'd just fire all female prison guards there'd be no, zero, none rape anywhere on earth. Ok, ok, that's hyperbole. There might be rape somewhere else on earth -- probably child care centers run by women who aren't kept chained to stoves. But you have to admit that if there were no female guards there'd be no prison rape whatsoever, none, at all. Not a bit. Never happen. Never happened before they started hiring prison guards. Wouldn't have started if them femininisters hadn't forced wise prison wardens to hire female guards. And as soon as we beat all the feministers, and put them in prison, and fire all the female guards, there will never be another prison rape EVAR! --fl
Curious to see sexual contact
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Mon, 2011-05-23 12:52.Curious to see sexual contact with hepatitis on the list - sexual transmission is generally low, it's blood transfer of any kind that's the risk factor (can include stuff as minor as sharing toothbrushes). I can't donate blood either, but working in a virus lab that's kind of understandable...