Advocates call on Arkansas lawmakers to decriminalize HIV, fund treatment and prevention
As Arkansas tops another terrible list, this time as the state with the highest rate of HIV transmission, advocates are calling on Arkansas lawmakers to decriminalize the sexually transmitted disease and commit funding for prevention, treatment and education.
A coalition of people from community organizations including Central Arkansas Pride, Arkansas Rapps, Intransitive, Arkansas Black Gay Men’s Forum and Arkansas Queer Men United, along with several people living with undetectable HIV, gathered in the Old Supreme Court Room in the State Capitol before several Democratic state representatives on Monday.
Advocates argued that Arkansas’s HIV laws, which haven’t been updated since the 1980s, are outdated and create a culture of fear that prevents people from getting tested and treated for HIV. They asked lawmakers to commit $1.5 million from the state’s surplus of more than $367 million to HIV prevention, treatment and education.
Under Arkansas law, knowingly exposing another person to HIV is a Class A felony, punishable by up to 30 years in prison and a fine of up to $15,000. But critics like the Center for HIV Law and Policy say these woefully outdated laws are out of step with modern science, rooted in stigma and punish behavior that carries no or negligible risk of actually transmitting the disease.
With proper treatment, HIV can become undetectable in a person, meaning it can’t be transmitted to another person through sex, but Arkansas law doesn’t account for this.
“HIV criminalization laws like ours here in Arkansas are opposed by public health and national justice experts such as the National Alliance of State and Territorial AIDS Directors and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers,” said Tian Estell, policy director of Intransitive. “We need to modernize and stop punishing people for having a virus.”
Tian added that “Black, transgender and non-binary individuals in the South are disproportionately impacted by HIV” due to other contributing factors like lack of housing, transportation and employment and limited or no access to healthcare.
“Discriminatory policies also generate and enhance stigma and fear, creating barriers to prevention and care,” Tian said. “Intransitive serves transgender people and migrants, and we’ve seen a rise in fear associated with HIV testing and disclosure of positive status”
HIV is a larger problem in Arkansas than in most states, and advocates argue our laws are only making it worse.
In 2019, the federal Health and Human Services Department started an initiative to end the HIV epidemic by 2030, identifying Arkansas as one of seven priority states where the burden of HIV is the highest.
“Arkansas continues to see new HIV diagnoses each year. In fact, Arkansas ranked number one in the highest increase of new HIV cases, seeing a roughly 67% spike since 2018,” said Raheem White, program director for Arkansas Rapps. “The burden does not fall equally. Black communities tend to carry a higher share of these diagnoses. Central Arkansas and parts of Northwest Arkansas show higher impact, while rural areas face a different challenge with fewer services and longer distances to care.”
Tommy Sproles, a community outreach organizer for Arkansas Rapps, said those numbers may not be representative of the full scope of cases in Arkansas, especially in rural areas.
“It’s a concern of ours that the numbers do not accurately reflect the real life experiences within those other parts of the state, such as the rural areas where we think that the numbers would be higher, but they’re going under-reported because of the lack of testing in those areas,” Sproles said. “As we’re talking about the data that we receive, what we’re basing our stuff on is the data that the Arkansas Department of Health actually receives, but that doesn’t even cover the full scope of everyone who is testing, if you’re not a clinic or a subcontractor for the Arkansas Department of Health, that data is not even being accumulated.”
Arkansas Rapps, for example, uses telehealth to connect people in Arkansas with testing, medication and preventative medicine like PrEP, which is up to 99% effective at preventing the transmission of HIV.
Advocates said criminalizing HIV and not funding its prevention costs Arkansas millions of dollars in both healthcare and incarceration.
“Pulaski County has the highest rate of HIV-criminalization arrests, with most other counties having only one or no arrests. This not only speaks to a disproportionate application of the law, but a significant waste of resources,” said Amber Kincade, a comprehensive prevention specialist with Engaging Arkansas Communities.
“According to data from the Arkansas Department of Corrections, from 2007 to 2023 the average sentence per count for the HIV-related convictions was 24 years. According to the fiscal year 25 Inmate Cost Report, the cost per incarcerated person a day was $74.46, which was a $4.03 increase from 2024. This means that a sentence of 24 years would cost the state roughly $652,272,” Kincade said. “The lifetime cost of treating HIV is estimated to be over $500,000. Therefore, for one case of a person living with HIV receiving such a sentencing, the cost will be over $1 million.”
Kincade added that Texas decriminalized HIV in 1994 and increased public health funding for prevention and testing.
“Texas has saved an estimated $500,000 in lifetime cost per case in HIV treatment,” Kincade said.
Sanjay Johnson, a man living with undetectable HIV, told lawmakers he was prosecuted in Pulaski County for knowingly transmitting HIV, despite the virus being undetectable in his system, in 2017.
“The language itself is damaging, because with that, people think that transmission actually occurred, which in my case was not the case. It never occurred at all,” Johnson said.
Johnson’s case lasted two years, and his lawyer got the charge reduced from a felony to aggravated assault with five years of probation. That’s despite Johnson’s medical records, which said he was undetectable, being shown in court, he said.
“You wonder why HIV is the only STD that someone can be charged for. Not gonorrhea, chlamydia, herpes, etc, etc. HIV is the only sexually transmitted disease that can be criminalized here,” Johnson said.
