The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has become another challenge for overcrowded European penitentiaries, with new emergency restrictions prompting protests, escapes and even deaths in Italian prisons
BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 18th March, 2020) The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak has become another challenge for overcrowded European penitentiaries, with new emergency restrictions prompting protests, escapes and even deaths in Italian prisons.
The most critical situation is in worst-hit Italy, where unrest in prisons started on March 8. Twelve inmates have reportedly died as a result of riots in over two dozen facilities across the country. Most of them lost their lives due to overdose on drugs they had raided from a medical room during the unrest. Sixteen others escaped. According to media reports, this figure exceeded 50, but dozens of fugitives were hunted down and brought back to prisons.
Inmates are furious with restrictions on having family visits and being allowed out for those at the end of their term. The situation, however, seems to have calmed down this week.
PRISONS: DANGEROUS PLACE IN EACH EUROPEAN COUNTRY?
Italy is suffering from the biggest coronavirus outbreak outside of China, with Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte pledging that his government "would use all human and economic resources to fight the coronavirus outbreak."
"But of course, the potential development of the epidemic in the Italian prisons, is the last of the Prime Minister's priorities. Italy is the worst hit country in Europe for now, with 28,000 cases and 2,800 fatalities [as of Tuesday]; hospitals lack respirators and staff to deal with the acute cases everywhere. The health system is on the verge of collapsing," penal lawyer Giuseppe Ferrari in Rome told Sputnik.
Still, any outbreak in such a confined community like a prison would be a "carnage," the lawyer warned.
In prisons, mostly overpopulated, some of the most basic disease prevention measures are against the rules or simply impossible. With an infectious disease outbreak such as coronavirus, experts recommend separating sick people from those who are in good health, to prevent the disease from spreading, but in prison this is often impossible, since inmates are already grouped according to security, Islamic fundamentalism and other logistical issues.
It is not easy to frequently wash hands in prisons, with alcohol-based hand sanitizers usually forbidden. Some countries try to find alcohol-free alternatives for use in prisons.
Given all these restrictions and specific problems, correctional facilities across Europe respond to epidemics with the same expected measures: lockdowns, solitary confinement and visit restrictions.
Sputnik approached the Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency to get to know about their action to prevent the virus from seeping into prisons.
"Visits are suspended. To continue the contact as much as possible, wider options for telephone contact are offered and, where possible, via Skype. Only visits that are necessary in the context of the legal process, such as a lawyer can continue. Young people in a correctional institution for juvenile offenders may still receive visits from their parents or legal guardians. Where possible, there is no more transport. Sessions can be attended via an image connection," the agency's spokeswoman Eveline Petit said.
Leave of prisoners is also suspended. The spokeswoman expressed understanding for the related "disappointment" but stressed that these steps were "paramount" to protect "staff and individuals."
The measures are in effect until April 6. Petit added that "self-reporters, who have been convicted of crimes with a relatively short sentence (less than three months), will await their verdict in freedom and will be called later to serve their sentence after the epidemic."
"It is a matter of a few weeks, we hope all will understand," she stated.
DETAINEES TO MAKE UP FOR SHORTAGES OF PROTECTIVE FACE MASKS IN BELGIUM
One of the lessons from the current crisis is that most countries turned out to be unprepared for it in terms of the number of masks available. Masks are especially vital for medical staff to keep the health services functioning.
On Sunday, French general practitioners, the "first line" doctors, said they had never received any face masks. Many were using the old masks delivered to them at the time of H1N1 or SARS epidemics, or used nothing at all.
Italy, France and Belgium are suffering from shortages of masks FFP2 or FFP3 for doctors and nurses, and physiotherapists, dentists or other para-medical professions who are in close contact with their patients.
After Belgium destroyed 5 million expired mouth masks three years ago, it has not stockpiled new ones. Health Minister Maggie De Block called a tender and strangely chose one of the three companies, but not the cheapest. It was a Turkish firm that is now under investigation, with its managers arrested.
The opposition now demands a full inquiry and Belgium tries to find another source. A part of the solution unexpectedly comes from detainees of the prison of Oudenaarde who offered to produce FFP2 masks for medical staff in a prison workshop.
"The detainees at the Oudenaarde prison came up with the idea themselves. They had stitched mouth masks in the past. Why, they asked, can't we do that again now? At noon on Monday, the main board of the prison system gave the green light: the materials have been delivered this Tuesday March 17th. ... We chose a pattern with doctors on Sunday. The stitching is already in full swing: 600 mouth masks per day to start with," the spokeswoman for penitentiary institutions in Belgium, Kathleen Van De Vijver told Sputnik.
She noted that these "sewers all have years of experience" as they produce pillowcases, umbrellas, shirts, sweaters, pants as well as hygienic mouth masks.
"The production of the sewing workshops will help make up for the shortages. The prisons of Bruges, Merksplas, Brussels and Mons will follow later this week. Detainees can earn extra money, about 3 EUR per hour," she stated.
According to the spokeswoman, the masks will be suitable for professional use and "can be washed."
"Our medical department has assured us that they are OK for professionals. We don't have a certificate yet because we make them in-house, but will see to it," she added.
The spokespersons of other European countries that Sputnik has talked declined to comment on the matter, which may indicate an attempt to relieve the prison administrations, already overburdened by the lack of staff and overpopulation.
Last week, the Iranian government announced that it was releasing some 85,000 detainees, to combat the spread of the infection in the virus-hit country, the third-worst affected in the world.
Some European countries, too, reportedly mull over early release for prisoners with light sentences or those who have come to the end of their sentence. In an interview with Sky News on Sunday, the UK Prison Officers' Association General Secretary Steve Gillan did not rule out this possibility, adding that there were no such plans at the moment.
He revealed that, nationwide, 113 staff and about 75 prisoners were isolated after showing symptoms, but none of them have tested positive. Gillan vowed that they were making every effort to avert riots similar to those in Italy.
As coronavirus ramps up across the world, more and more countries express concerns over the spread of misinformation around the epidemic.
In Germany, Lower Saxony's Interior Minister Boris Pistorius from the Social Democratic Party threatened to introduce legislative changes to prosecute those who would "try to spread fake news" on social media.
The deputy chairman of the AfD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Sebastian Munzenmaier, immediately reacted, rejecting this as a maneuver to restrict freedom of expression.
"Scaremongering is indeed a real danger. But how does Mr. Pistorius want to intervene on these so-called 'fake news'? It can only be achieved through a correct information campaign by the government. Blaming citizens exchanging on social media is wrong," Munzenmaier told Sputnik.
According to the lawmaker, Health Minister Jens Spahn and Chancellor Angela Merkel "would be the first to be taken to court for 'fake news'" if one looks at the Federal government's information policy over the past few weeks.
"The weeks of appeasement by Merkel, saying that drastic measures were unnecessary and that Germany was very well prepared for the Coronavirus epidemic were obvious 'fake news', " he argued.
