In Dallas, which has the highest HIV rate in Texas, commissioners are considering whether to overturn a law that makes it illegal for county health officials to distribute free condoms. Fourteen years ago, health workers routinely went into high-risk neighborhoods to hand out condoms and sterilized needles. But in 1995, a thin majority of commissioners ruled that the program actually promoted illegal and immoral behavior. Over the past decade and a half, however, the HIV/AIDS rate has skyrocketed, particularly among poor and African-American communities in the county. County Judge Jim Foster, who supports reversing the condom policy, says he has enough votes to overturn the ban. “We should have never had it to start with,” he said. Kenneth Mayfield, one of the commissioners who voted for the ban, would now like to see limited distribution of condoms. Under his plan, condoms would be given out only after the recipients received counseling about their risky behaviors and were told that condoms are not 100 percent effective. In addition, under Mayfield’s proposal, county health workers could give free condoms only to high-risk individuals with HIV/AIDS or a sexually transmitted disease, those who have had sex with someone infected with the virus or an STD, and those who have had sex with prostitutes. Mayfield’s order would ban condom distribution in schools or “any venues where children are present.”