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Prison plasma donation program begins in Arkansas.

1964

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LAB
AIDS
CAN

This program establishes a way for incarcerated people to earn money and prisons to generate profit, as Arkansas does not allow prison labor. The Department of Corrections partners with Health Management Associates Inc. (HMA) to run a plasma donation program through the medical program in the prison.

HMA then sells each unit of plasma for $50, with each incarcerated donor receiving $7 from that $50.

The program will last until the AIDS epidemic, when fear about blood screening leads to the program's transition to a new plasma center–Pine Bluff Biologicals. At one point, 40% of the plasma that goes through the center will come from incarcerated donors.

The program will end in 1994, but not before Canada seeks damages after over 1,000 people in the country contract HIV through plasma donated via this program.