Just out., October 05, 2001, Page 13, Image 13

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White makes
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the work,” White says. “All my
life 1 knew people who were
affected, but I never got
involved. Here all we have is
education, and there’s no one to
educate us hut ourselves.”
The harriers— the stigma of
HIV/AIDS as a gay disease, the
homophobia of inmates and
guards alike, having to accom­
plish a lot in a few spare hours
each day— were overcome.
One of the best days of his life
was when he went to he resentenced.
The district attorney, in an effort to
provide substantial and com­
pelling evidence to the judge that
White should he released, stood up
and said the co-defendants had
lied to get a plea bargain.
Finally, his name was cleared.
“It was the best for my mom to
hear that because she had always
been so supportive of me, hut I
always felt that she felt inside
that I had done it,” he says.
White knows going to prison
doesn’t automatically change a per­
White had taken what was in
son. But for him, it finally gave him
existence and built upon it,
the opportunity to turn his life
developed it and implemented
around.
it. He then incorporated the
He learned about an HIV pre­
HIV/AIDS Awareness Program
vention program at work within
as a nonprofit organization run
the penitentiary, so he became in­
by and for prisoners in Salem.
volved—and not just a little hit. He
Still, W hite had no sign of
made phone calls, wrote letters,
calm water. W hile getting
wrote grants. He got the support of
blood work done at the infirm­
Charles White overcame a number of barriers in developing the
the American Red Cross and the
ary, the doctor told him his
HIV/AIDS Awareness Program at the Oregon State Penitentiary
Oregon Health Division. He
liver enzymes were elevated hut
recruited a team of prisoners with impressive genius and a marketing guy who could talk refused to explain what that meant,
skills for the endeavor: a pharmacist with 30 you into anything.
White conducted some research on his
years of experience, a computer programming
“I was doing it for the work. 1 believed in own and learned this was a sign of hepati­
"All
tis C. When he got out, he was tested. It came
hack positive.
“The doctor knew I had hepatitis C and
should have told me I needed to be tested for
it, hut they don’t want to spend money on
tests and treatment,” he says. “That brought
the issue home.”
After the torrent of life in prison, White
keeps a swift and steady pace. He says he has
a lot of motivation to stay off drugs.
“I had a lot of people that supported me and
gave me an opportunity,” he says. “I would never
want to do any­
thing to show
these people they
did not make the
right decision to
support me.”
White works as
prevention and
education director
for Lifeline AIDS
— Charles White
Project in Salem.
In addition to that
job, he’s a facilitator for Rainbow Youth.
He also is an instructor/trainer for the
American Red Cross. He has all kinds of cer­
tifications— to teach cardiopulmonary resus­
citation, first aid and preventing disease
transmission.
White travels to conferences and is a paid
speaker. He’s an advocate for prison reform and
prisoner rights. And for the HIV/AIDS Aware­
ness Program, he provides good PR—a prisoner
who made good. JH
my life I knew people who were
affected, but I never got involved
Here oil we have is education, and there's no
one to educate us but ourselves."
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