Human Rights Watch Warns of COVID-19 Danger in Prisons

According to a report by Human Rights Watch, the risk of COVID-19 infection increasingly threatens prisoners, prison guards, and their families. Approximately 11 million people are incarcerated in prisons worldwide.

Experts have repeatedly warned about the danger of prisons becoming hotspots for the new coronavirus outbreak. Human Rights Watch has reviewed reports from media outlets worldwide regarding prison conditions during the coronavirus crisis. A summary of these reports indicates that approximately 580,000 prisoners in 80 countries worldwide have been released from detention facilities in efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

However, this figure represents only about 5 percent of all prisoners worldwide. Currently, the total number of prisoners worldwide is estimated at approximately 11 million people.

Joe Becker, one of the lawyers at Human Rights Watch, has stated that the number of released prisoners is very low and the pace of their release is slow.

Human Rights Watch has warned that prisoners, prison and detention facility staff, and their families are increasingly at risk of contracting COVID-19.

According to the organization’s statement, approximately 20,000 prisoners and 6,400 prison and detention facility employees in the United States have contracted the new coronavirus. More than 300 of them have died as a result of COVID-19.

It is reported that in Marion Detention Facility in Ohio, more than 80 percent of prisoners have contracted the new coronavirus.

In prisons in South American countries, thousands of people have also contracted the virus. To date, 160 deaths from COVID-19 have been officially recorded in these prisons, although the actual death toll is estimated to be significantly higher.

Human Rights Watch has warned that prisoners, due to spatial limitations, struggle to maintain social distancing, and for this reason, the risk of contracting the new coronavirus is even greater for them.

Furthermore, most prisons and detention facilities lack adequate sanitary facilities and proper medical care. Many prisons in 125 countries worldwide are overcrowded beyond their capacity.

It was in March, at the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, that the United Nations warned about the catastrophic consequences of the pandemic in prisons worldwide. The United Nations called on governments to not forget prisoners during the coronavirus crisis.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, at that time asked governments to rapidly reduce the number of prisoners.

For example, the British Ministry of Justice announced at that time that it would release approximately 4,000 prisoners. From that time until May 12, however, only 57 prisoners have been released from British detention facilities in efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

Human rights organizations and institutions have called on governments to release, in particular, prisoners who have committed minor offenses, those whose prison sentences are nearing completion, or even those whose prison sentences have not been legally finalized.

Joe Becker, one of the lawyers at Human Rights Watch, again emphasized: “Governments worldwide must act quickly to prevent the catastrophic consequences and mass death [resulting from the coronavirus pandemic] in prisons.”

In Iran, since the outbreak of the coronavirus, according to claims by judicial authorities, 100,000 prisoners have been temporarily released. Most known political and ideological prisoners, however, remain incarcerated.

Source: DW