Strict measures in place to keep COVID-19 out of country’s jails

Mar 29, 2020 News

International news sites have indicated that COVID-19 cases are already spreading among the incarcerated in penitentiaries such as the New York’s infamous Riker’s Island jail.

KEEPING SAFE: Washing facilities at the Lusignan and New Amsterdam Prisons

Prison officials in Guyana are taking no such chance of that happening here.
With assistance from the Ministry of Public Health, they have already implemented several strict COVID-related measures to protect inmates, staff and even visitors.
Outlining some of these measures, Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels disclosed that the authorities are limiting visitors to the prisons, as part of the new dispensation of social distancing.
Sinks and sanitizers have also been installed for visitors, while the time they are allotted to see inmates have been reduced.
Samuels said that the prisons are being regularly sanitized, and lauded the inmates for their cooperation.
He said that the Demerara Distilleries Limited (DDL) handed over a significant amount of sanitation supplies to the prisons on Friday.
Because only priority matters are being handled by the courts because of the COVID-19 outbreak, fewer persons are being incarcerated.
At present, only the New Amsterdam Prisons and the Lusignan Prisons are taking in new inmates. The new inmates are being separated from the rest of the prison population.
But one thing that prisoners in that densely populated environment will be virtually unable to do is practice social distancing.
But if, despite all these precautions, COVID-19 cases are detected within the prisons, quarantine areas have been set up at all the prisons to house infected inmates.
“We also had training sessions today with Ministry of Health staffers, and this information will be shared with the inmate population,” the Prison Director said.
Inmates will also be able to view COVID-19) information on CDs at the prisons.
According to an Associated Press report, “the first positive tests from inside America’s correctional facilities started trickling out two weeks ago, with more than 350 cases now confirmed in New York, California, Michigan, Alabama and a dozen other states.”
“But information and transparency about the number of infections are lacking, and some in custody are afraid to report symptoms because they’ve seen others being placed in solitary confinement for doing so, several men said in interviews with the AP. Many correctional departments across the country do not even identify affected facilities, let alone name those who test positive, citing privacy concerns.
“Most of the coronavirus cases in jails and prisons so far have been reported from New York City, with the Department of Corrections saying Saturday that one of its longest-serving officers passed away at a local hospital and that 104 staff and 132 men in custody have now tested positive at Rikers and city jails alone — five times what was reported just a week ago,” it added.