Minister the Hon. Quinton Edness stressed yesterday.

After reviewing his Ministry's policy on AIDS testing for prisoners with senior staff, including Chief Medical Officer Dr. John Cann and Prison Commissioner Mr. Edward Dyer, Mr. Edness said: "We agree that there should not be mandatory testing for AIDS for prisoners.

"We will, of course, continue with our present policy of encouraging prisoners in high-risk categories to volunteer to be tested.'' Mr. Edness later told The Royal Gazette he hoped that this decision would stop the hysteria recently caused by criminologist Mrs. Sheelagh Cooper, and the belief that all prisoners had been exposed to the AIDS virus.

Mrs. Cooper, in a verbal report last month to the criminal justice system review team, speculated that up to 60 percent of Casemates' prisoners were HIV-infected.

She said she made the estimate based on the rate of HIV carriers outside of prisons and the percentage of inmates who are drug abusers, "coupled with what happens inside (prisons)''.

Mrs. Cooper also said AIDS testing should be mandatory in prison.

But Mr. Edness said the AIDS testing policy would not be changed because: a prisoner should not be stripped of his or her rights; the incidence of HIV infection in prisons has been "grossly'' and "irresponsibly'' exaggerated; the extent of homosexuality and intravenous drug use in prisons has also been exaggerated; and the policy of recommending voluntary testing for inmates who are identified as being at risk works well.

Latest statistics provided by his Ministry's medical staff showed 13 of the Island's 259 prisoners are HIV-infected and three prisoners have AIDS.

Mr. Edness said there was no epidemiological evidence that the prisons are playing a significant role in the AIDS problem.

And while admitting that the prisons are not void of homosexuality and intravenous drug use, he said: "those who are closest to the inmate population believe firmly that they are not significant problems''.

Mr. Edness added that the incidence of prisoners refusing to be tested is "very, very low''.

He said it was "certainly nowhere near high enough to make us want to consider alternative methods''.

Mr. Edness said prisoners, to some extent, got better information on AIDS than the general public.

"Our health care system, as far as prisons are concerned, is of a very high calibre,'' he said.

"Nursing staff (at the prisons) arrange for prison officers to have lectures (on AIDS) every three months. And inmates themselves get information on AIDS on a constant basis. It is more intense because it is on a one-on-one basis.

"When I reviewed that I was very satisfied.'' Mr. Edness, who views mandatory testing for AIDS in any area as an "intrusion'' or "violation'' of one's rights, stressed that he believed the voluntary testing system was working.

"All of the resources of the Health Department are available to prisoners, and are used by prisoners in need quite extensively,'' he said.

"Those who test positive are counselled and treated in exactly the same way as the rest of the population. Those who have fully-blown AIDS are segregated from the rest of the prisoners and treated in the same way as any member of the public would be.''