MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The American Civil Liberties Union is going to court to challenge Alabama's long standing policy of segregating HIV positive prisoners from the remainder of the prison population.

U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson will hear arguments in a trial beginning Monday morning at the federal courthouse in Montgomery on whether he should order Alabama prison officials to end the policy.

The lead attorney in the case for the ACLU, Margaret Winter, said HIV is now controlled by medicine and is no longer the death sentence it was once considered. She called continuing to isolate HIV inmates "absurd" and said Alabama and South Carolina are the only states that continue the practice.

Department of Corrections spokesman Brian Corbett said prison officials would not comment before the start of the trial.