Abstract
The article considers health and human rights implications for people deprived of liberty during the COVID-19 crisis. The health risks of incarceration for individual and community health, particularly in overcrowded and under-resourced prisons and detention centres, are well known, but with the COVID-19 pandemic have become a public health emergency. Physical distancing in prisons is hardly manageable, and protective means are poor or lacking. Emergency releases have been shown to be feasible in terms of public safety but lack sustainability in reducing the number of people living in detention, and, globally, only a small proportion of them have been released. Without controlling the infection inside prisons, global efforts to tackle the spread of the disease may fail. People living in detention are not only more vulnerable to infection with COVID-19 but they are also especially vulnerable to human rights violations induced by inappropriate restrictions under the pretext of infection control. Therefore, alternatives for detention should be promoted and the number of incarcerated people radically decreased, an approach realizing health objectives that simultaneously promotes human rights. The article calls on policymakers and all professionals involved in public health and criminal justice not to waste the opportunities provided by the crisis but to act now.
With permission of the American Journal of Public Health: A shortened version of this article has been published in the American Journal of Public Health: Pont J, Enggist S, Stöver H, Baggio S, Gétaz L, Wolff H: COVID-19—the case for rethinking health and human rights in prisons. Am J Publ Health 2021;111(6):1081–1085.
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Notes
- 1.
Fazel and Baillargeon (2011), pp. 956–965.
- 2.
Dolan et al. (2016), pp. 1089–1102.
- 3.
For convenience and brevity we use in the following “prisons” for all kinds of institutions where persons are deprived of their liberty for legal reasons, i.e. pre-trial detentions centres, jails, correctional institutions, detention centres, etc. and “persons deprived of liberty (PDL)” for all legally detained persons.
- 4.
- 5.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976a), adopted by UNGA Res 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966, entered into force on 3 January 1976.
- 6.
European Prison Rules (2006), CM recommendation, 2 rev. 2020.
- 7.
Penal Reform International (2020c), Global Prison Trends 2020.
- 8.
World Prison Brief (2020), More than three million people are held in pre-trial detention and other forms of remand imprisonment worldwide.
- 9.
Walmsley (2014).
- 10.
Psick et al. (2017), pp. 57–63.
- 11.
Ibid.
- 12.
- 13.
- 14.
Dolan et al. (2016), pp. 1089–1102.
- 15.
Ojikutu et al. (2018), p. e0198258.
- 16.
He et al. (2016), pp. 84–92.
- 17.
World Health Organization (2016), Combating hepatitis B and C to reach elimination by 2030: advocacy brief.
- 18.
Moazen et al. (2020), p. 33.
- 19.
The PLoS Medicine Editors (2010), p. e1000383.
- 20.
Fazel and Baillargeon (2011), pp. 956–965.
- 21.
Skarupski et al. (2018), pp. 157–165.
- 22.
Burki (2020), pp. 1411–1412.
- 23.
World Health Organization Office for Europe (2020), Preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention. Interim guidance, 15 March 2020.
- 24.
International Corrections & Prisons Association (ICPA) (2020), Covid-19 outbreak in national/state correctional agencies.
- 25.
Hagan et al. (2020), pp. 1139–1143.
- 26.
Council of Criminal Justice (2020), National Commission on Covid-19 and Criminal Justice, Impact report, September 2020.
- 27.
Penal Reform International (2020a), Coronavirus: Preventing harm and human rights violations in criminal justice systems.
- 28.
Hagan et al. (2020), pp. 1139–1143.
- 29.
Centro de Estudios Latinamericanos sobre Insecuridad y Violencia (CELIV), Sociedad de Criminiolia Latinamericano (SOCLA) (2020), The Effects of Coronavirus in Prisons in Latin America June.
- 30.
Hagan et al. (2020), pp. 1139–1143.
- 31.
Ibid.
- 32.
Ibid., footnote 30.
- 33.
- 34.
Hagan et al. (2020), pp. 1139–1143.
- 35.
Hagan et al. (2020), pp. 1139–1143.
- 36.
Skarupski et al. (2018), pp. 157–165.
- 37.
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (2020), CPT/Inf (2020) 13, Statement of principles relating to the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
- 38.
Penal Reform International (2020b), Coronavirus: Healthcare and human rights of people in prison, Briefing.
- 39.
Apóstolo et al. (2021).
- 40.
World Health Organization Office for Europe (2020), Preparedness, prevention and control of COVID-19 in prisons and other places of detention. Interim guidance, 15 March 2020.
- 41.
The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime UNODC (2015), Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the Nelson Mandela Rules).
- 42.
Centro de Estudios Latinamericanos sobre Insecuridad y Violencia (CELIV), Sociedad de Criminiolia Latinamericano (SOCLA) (2020), The Effects of Coronavirus in Prisons in Latin America June.
- 43.
Skarupski et al. (2018), pp. 157–165.
- 44.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) (2020), Human Rights of Persons with Covid-19.
- 45.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976b), adopted by UNGA Res 2200A (XXI) of 16 December 1966, entered into force on 23 March 1976; OHCHR Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (2020), Deliberation No. 11 on prevention of arbitrary deprivation of liberty in the context of public health emergencies.
- 46.
American Public Health Association (1990).
- 47.
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) (2020), Human Rights of Persons with Covid-19.
- 48.
European Court of Human Rights (2013), European Convention on Human Rights.
- 49.
European Court of Human Rights (2021), Guide on the Case Law of the European Convention on Human Rights. Prisoners’ Rights.
- 50.
Pont (2008), pp. 184–197.
- 51.
Mann et al. (1994), pp. 7–23.
- 52.
Mann (1997), pp. 113–120.
- 53.
Skarupski et al. (2018), pp. 157–165; Hagan et al. (2020), pp. 1139–1143; Penal Reform International (2020b); Centro de Estudios Latinamericanos sobre Insecuridad y Violencia (CELIV), Sociedad de Criminiolia Latinamericano (SOCLA) (2020), The Effects of Coronavirus in Prisons in Latin America June; UNODC, WHO, UNAIDS OHCHR (2021), Joint statement on COVID-19 in prisons and other closed settings; European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (2020), CPT/Inf (2020) 13, Statement of principles relating to the treatment of persons deprived of their liberty in the context of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic).
- 54.
Penal Reform International (2020a).
- 55.
Harvey et al. (2020).
- 56.
American Civil Liberation Union (ACLU) (2020), Analytics: Decarceration and Crime during Covid-19.
- 57.
Penal Reform International (2012), Ten-Point Plan to Reduce Prison Overcrowding.
- 58.
UNODC, International Committee of the Red Cross (2013), Handbook on strategies to reduce overcrowding in prisons.
- 59.
Council of Europe Portal Key Council of Europe Conventions and Recommendations.
- 60.
Geiran and Durnescu (2016).
- 61.
Aebi and Hashimoto (2019).
- 62.
- 63.
Feest (2020), pp. 113–122.
- 64.
- 65.
- 66.
Finateri and Saleh-Hanna (2000).
- 67.
European Court of Human Rights (2021), Guide on the Case Law of the European Convention on Human Rights. Prisoners’ Rights.
- 68.
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Pont, J., Enggist, S., Stöver, H., Wolff, H. (2022). Covid-19 Lessons for Health and Human Rights in Prison. In: Burbano Herrera, C., Haeck, Y. (eds) Human Rights Behind Bars. Ius Gentium: Comparative Perspectives on Law and Justice, vol 103. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-11484-7_9
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