Geoffrey Pearce O.A.M. was a prison corrections officer at Long Bay Jail in New South Wales who, shortly after completing his training at 21 with his whole life and career ahead of him, was deliberately stabbed with a needle contaminated with HIV-positive blood by an inmate from the Jail’s AIDS wing, The Malabar Assessment Unit.

There was no clear motive for the attack: colleagues and inmates alike described Pearce as a ‘gentle giant’ who came to the job “with no ego” and was genuinely committed to assisting inmate rehabilitation. Diagnosed HIV positive following the incident, he nonetheless returned to duty and turned his diagnosis and the publicity surrounding the assault into a platform for education, confronting the fear and stigma of the early 1990s by demonstrating that people living with HIV were not contagious in everyday settings and could lead relatively normal lives. His consequential advocacy left such a profound mark in a short time that he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1998 and, in 2020, had a correctional facility named in his honour: the Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - Geoffrey Pearce OAM

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Outro Music

'If I Can Dream' by Elvis Presley

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Background Music - Always On My Mind (Piano Cover by Riyandi Kusuma)

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Elvis Presley - Always On My Mind (Piano Cover by Riyandi Kusuma)

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Music / Instrumental by Aries Beats 'A Sin' + WEBSITE

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -

• British Newspaper Archives / Newspapers

Long Bay Jail in New South Wales has long been regarded as Australia’s “toughest prison,” and in the 1980s and 1990s it became notorious as the site of the prison system’s AIDS wing, initially called the Malabar Assessment Unit and grimly referred to by inmates as “death row.” Press coverage from the era documents tense confrontations as prison officers staged strikes and protests when inmates labelled “AIDS carriers” were not segregated and were moved into the main population, reflecting both genuine fear of infection among staff and vocal hostility from other prisoners unwilling to share space with those infected.

Within that fraught environment, individual stories emerged: transsexual inmate Tanya Spence forming a relationship with fellow inmate David on the segregation wing, and Neil Carroll, a convicted armed robber who redirected his sentence into AIDS peer-support work and, later, playwrighting, producing several AIDS-awareness plays performed for inmates and the broader public — acts that complicated a narrative otherwise dominated by fear, stigma and institutional conflict.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - Long Bay Jail, Australia

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Dancing on My Own by Brooklyn Duo

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TV Documentary inside Long Bay Jail c.1987

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Music / Instrumental by Aries Beats 'A Sin' + WEBSITE

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -

• British Newspaper Archives / Newspapers

In the third and final episode of Prison and HIV Activist Brian Carmichael, we hear the sentencing outcome of Brian’s 2001 conviction after an incident in which a police officer, having kicked his feet from underneath him, alleged that Brian’s subsequent fall caused an injury and led to a battery charge; Brian contests the ruling, mounting an appeal that winds its way through the courts while he and his then partner relocate to New York City, a move that becomes both refuge and new terrain for his activism as he navigates legal uncertainty, personal upheaval and the broader struggle for justice.

Upon his release thirteen years later, he resumed his activism, highlighting the appalling conditions and unnecessary deaths of fellow inmates at Rikers Island. Celebrating years of sobriety and sober living, Brian uses his voice and long-standing experience as an activist to raise attention to these abuses; his testimony and campaigning are widely regarded as a valued contribution in calls for meaningful reform.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - Brian Carmichael

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'Nothings Gonna Stop Us Now' by Sarah Potenza & Dave Audé

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In this second episode of three, prison HIV activist Brian Carmichael is released on parole and takes up a post as manager of a sober living programme, determined to enforce its rules and rebuild his life; his attempts to introduce structure are met with a false allegation from a resident, which, though ultimately vexatious, unleashes a barrage of harassment from authorities that Brian believes stems from the public profile he gained campaigning for better care and services for inmates with HIV/AIDS—work that drew intense press attention despite him being HIV‑negative at the time—and that continues to shadow him as he tries to translate activism into everyday rehabilitation of both himself and his service users.

Despite the personal danger, Brian continued to press for reform, refusing to be silenced even as the stakes and the consequences escalated.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - Brian Carmichael

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -

• British Newspaper Archives / Newspapers

California’s Medical Facility in Vacaville had long carried a reputation for poor care of inmates diagnosed with AIDS and HIV. By 1992, Brian Patrick Carmichael — though HIV negative himself at the time — began speaking out after witnessing friends and fellow prisoners die of undignified deaths at the hands of the prison authorities; he helped establish Pastoral Care Services, organising round‑the‑clock vigils to accompany those in their final days and hours. With the support of fellow inmates Charles Wyatt Perry, Laos Schuman, Peter Yvanovich and more than 100 others, Carmichael alerted the press, politicians and the public to the appalling conditions, undertaking medication protests and hunger strikes to force attention and change.

Although the changes were slow, they began to take effect, and with the support of ACT UP San Francisco and fellow inmates, Brian never relented in his advocacy. That persistence, however, came at a cost: while incarcerated he and his comrades suffered retaliation from prison authorities, and on release—after being diagnosed HIV‑positive—his activism had made him a marked man, exposing him to what seemed to be further reprisals by the police. Despite the personal danger, Brian continued to press for reform, refusing to be silenced even as the stakes and the consequences escalated.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - Brian Carmichael

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -

• British Newspaper Archives / Newspapers
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A forgotten and overlooked aspect of the AIDS pandemic was how people diagnosed in prison were treated when their illness advanced: rather than receive dignified medical care, many were transported to hospitals in chains and shackles. In 1991 a male prisoner testified to being taken to hospital still chained, and in 1996 a woman on remand, ‘Jane’ — not convicted, with no previous offences — was held in the AIDS ward at St Mary’s Hospital, London, chained to a guard round the clock; so weak she could barely walk the corridor, her chain was wrapped in a jacket at night to stop it from rattling and keeping her awake.

Press coverage and photographs provoked national outrage and became a scandal for the then Conservative government, which was forced to review the policy of shackling women on hospital visits. That episode exposes how stigma, punishment and institutional inertia compounded the suffering of people with HIV in custody, consigning compassion and basic human dignity to the margins.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - AIDS in Chains

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -

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• 'Anne Widdecombe Song' from Victoria Wood's 'All the Trimmings' 2000 - BBC

Mark Warren Hearne was diagnosed with AIDS in 1988 at the age of 22 and told he had only three months to live; he nevertheless survived for another nine years, during which time he was convicted of robbery in 1992 and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

While serving that sentence at HMP Camp HIll on the Isle of Wight he was admitted to St Mary's Hospital on the island with an AIDS-related illness; either because doctors believed him immobile or because he persuaded them he was, his prison guard was stood down, and Mark subsequently escaped from the hospital and the country was alerted.

We search the newspaper archives in a bid to piece together snippets of this young man's life, starting with a single clipping that announced the discovery of his lifeless body by neighbours in his London flat in August 1997 — he was 31.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - Mark Warren Hearne

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -

• British Newspaper Archives / Newspapers

In 1986, Dublin’s Mountjoy and Arbour Hill prisons opened separation wings for inmates diagnosed with AIDS — a policy prisoners likened to being “treated like lepers” that sparked a wave of desperate protests: dirty protests, prolonged sit‑ins and rooftop demonstrations that only drew sustained media attention once visible, dramatic resistance began. Men and women confined to segregation described humiliating conditions — paper pillowcases and sheets, food served on paper plates, exclusion from work and education, and strict prohibitions on mixing with others — measures that compounded the isolation of illness and drove three men to escape while prompting public acts of defiance that forced the outside world to confront punitive, fear‑driven policies behind bars.

The punishment for their crimes was a prison sentence, not an HIV/AIDS diagnosis, yet by standing up, using their voices and exercising their right to protest they exposed inadequate medical care, entrenched stigma and human rights abuses in the prison system. In doing so they became unwitting activists: their resistance helped secure improvements in conditions and access to treatment for incarcerated people living with HIV and warrants recognition in the history of AIDS not only for their offences but for the role they played in advancing dignity and humane care.

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XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - MOUNTJOY & ARBOUR HILL

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RTÉ - Irelands National Television & Radio Broadcaster

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Music / Instrumental by Aries Beats 'A Sin' + WEBSITE

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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -

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• RTÉ - Back to the Joy (Mountjoy Revisited Documentary) YouTube