Human Rights Watch warns of COVID-19 risk in prisons

According to Human Rights Watch, the risk of contracting COVID-19 is increasingly threatening prisoners, prison guards, and their families. There are about 11 million people in prison worldwide.

Experts have repeatedly warned about the risk of prisons becoming hotbeds for the spread of the novel coronavirus. Human Rights Watch has reviewed global media reports on prison conditions during the coronavirus crisis. The summary of these reports indicates that about 580,000 prisoners in 80 countries have been released from detention centers in order to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

This number, however, is only about 5 percent of all prisoners worldwide. Currently, the total number of prisoners worldwide is estimated at about 11 million.

Joe Becker, a lawyer with Human Rights Watch, has stated that the number of prisoners released is very low and the process of releasing them is also slow.

Human Rights Watch has warned that prisoners, prison and detention center staff, as well as their families, are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19.

According to the organization, about 20,000 prisoners and 6,400 prison and detention center employees in the United States have been infected with the novel coronavirus. More than 300 of them have died from COVID-19.

It is said that at the Marion Correctional Facility in Ohio, more than 80% of prisoners have been infected with the new coronavirus.

Thousands of people have also been infected with the virus in prisons in South American countries. So far, 160 deaths from Covid-19 have been officially recorded in these prisons, although the actual number of deaths is estimated to be much higher.

Human Rights Watch has warned that prisoners are having difficulty maintaining social distancing due to spatial constraints, putting them at greater risk of contracting the novel coronavirus.

Furthermore, most prisons and detention centers lack adequate health facilities and adequate medical care. Many prisons in 125 countries around the world are overcrowded.

It was in March, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, that the United Nations warned of the catastrophic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world's prisons. The UN called on governments around the world not to forget prisoners during the COVID-19 crisis.

At the same time, UN Human Rights Commissioner Michelle Bachelet called on governments around the world to quickly reduce the number of prisoners.

For example, the UK Ministry of Justice announced at the same time that it would release around 4,000 prisoners. Since then, as of May 12, only 57 prisoners have been released from UK detention centres in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Human rights organizations and institutions have called on governments to release, especially prisoners who have committed minor crimes, whose prison terms are coming to an end, or whose prison sentences have not even been legalized.

Joe Becker, a lawyer at Human Rights Watch, reiterated: "Governments around the world must act quickly to prevent the catastrophic consequences and mass deaths [caused by the coronavirus pandemic] in prisons."

In Iran, judicial authorities claim that 100,000 prisoners have been temporarily released since the outbreak of the coronavirus. Most known political and ideological prisoners, however, remain in prison.

Source: DW