The day after Lee Raines found out he acquired HIV, he was arrested by police in New York. It was 1989, and he was one of thousands of people who attended a protest against New York City’s policy to fight the HIV epidemic – a policy that protesters believed was inadequate. More than 200 people were arrested.
Lee was released from custody after a few hours, but the experience had a profound impact on him.
“I came out stumbling,” he says. “It was a sliver of what incarceration is, but I realized suddenly that this is everyday life for a lot of Americans.”