The Latino Discharge Planning Project (LDP) was designed, under the Fortune Society, to meet the social service needs of HIV positive individuals who are in the process of making a transition from New York correctional facilities into community life. The program’s overall goals are: (a) to provide a humane transition to the community for inmates who are HIV-positive and symptomatic, and (b) to ensure that the clients’ basic needs, medical, drug treatment, social support, educational and vocational, nutritional, housing, and legal, are met upon their release from the correctional facilities. Most program clients are adult males with the vast majority meeting the criteria for AIDS. While the LDP maintains a project focus on Latino inmates and parolees, 25 percent of their clients come from other ethnic backgrounds and/or are not yet HIV symptomatic. Key program elements include reliance on peer services and positive role modeling, a supportive environment to encourage socially acceptable and healthier behaviors, and a holistic and advocacy driven approach to service provision. The LDP project goal is to provide discharge planning to approximately 175 inmates at New York correctional facilities every year. In addition, the project is designed to engage 75 of these inmates in the community-based portion of the program upon their release from jail or prison. During the first two years of program implementation, the overall goals of the LDP program were fulfilled; establishing and operating an innovative program that assists HIV infected Latino and other inmates in their return back to community life. Despite this progress several challenges were revealed in the implementation of the program. Staff perceived the combination of fieldwork and case management or counseling as burdensome and stressful and due to the demands of program implementation, staff had reduced opportunities to facilitate the active participation and involvement of clients in program activities. In addition, there were inconsistencies in program data entered in the information system limiting the means by which almost immediate feedback about the program could be secured. References