While welcoming the emergency regulations instituted by government to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the Guyana Human Rights Association (GHRA) on Saturday called for measures to be taken to reduce overcrowding in prisons given the potential risks to prison staff and inmates.
The human rights body said the regulations announced by government on Friday are justified as they seek to rely on vigorous social distancing to combat COVID-19 but also urged that they be enforced in a “sensible and humane” manner.
“Justification for the measures is rooted in the fact that there is no cure [for] COVID-19, so the only absolutely sure way to stay safe is not to contract it. The medical community can only help the infected by testing early and [assisting] them to recover,” the GHRA executive Committee said in a statement, while urging their sensible and humane enforcement. “Hopefully the insensitive manner in which arriving passengers were reportedly quarantined in the early stages of the emergency were due to nervous unfamiliarity and have been since corrected,” it added.
The GHRA further voiced its concern that no reference has been made to the situation in the country’s prisons, while it noted that after health personnel and indigenous people, prisoners and prisons staff are the most exposed category of persons in the country.
In particular, it singled out the Lusignan Prison, saying that it was never intended to be a prison and constitutes an ideal incubator of COVID-19. “Hygiene, lack of fresh air and water, the grimy conditions inevitable with so many persons in a concentrated space, all point to the urgent need for reducing the numbers,” it said, while noting that prisoners reach the end of their sentences and prison staff go home every evening.
Saying that the society is not quarantined against its prisons, the GHRA recommended that application of social distancing is especially critical in prisons and that several measures be considered to reduce over-crowding, including the commutation of sentences for possession of marijuana or other secondary drugs. It also urged that all remand prisoners for non-violent crimes be reviewed and bail reduced, that all prisoners whose sentences are within three months of completion be released early, and that the sentences of all women prisoners for non-violent offences be commuted.
“These recommendations are also made in light of the very limited medical services currently available in the prisons, where not even the services of the medex are available full-time,” it added.
Indigenous communities
Noting the history of indigenous communities decimated out of existence by successive waves of epidemics and that Guyana’s indigenous communities are no exception in this regard, the GHRA said the border communities in regions 1, 7, 8 and 9 are vulnerable. It called the influx of refugees “one source of worry” but highlighted that even more concerning is the threat posed by miners and mining-related trucking to mine-sites and community shops. As a result, it said movements of strangers into the villages need to be brought to a halt and indigenous leaving the communities reduced to essential travel. “Gold-mining and other non-essential activities in the interior should cease for the period of the emergency,” it urged. “While more vulnerable to the virus, however, the life-style renders indigenous communities capable of surviving catastrophes, lockdowns and shortages much more readily than their coastal counterparts,” it pointed out.
Coastal communities
The GHRA also said that the social distancing strategy places the responsibility on staying safe squarely in the hands of each citizen individually. “Social distancing rules apply to everyone, not just strangers or sick people. In family situations this is best achieved when we come home by carefully wiping down bags or things we introduce into the home, including our shoes, personal belongings (cell phone) and other things that the virus might have settled on outside,” it said.
Additionally, it observed that people in crowded communities under curfew and general lockdown spend their days living in yards with other people. “These are the most challenging situations in which to practice social distancing. Success will be determined by the extent to which the community can devise imaginative ways of assisting themselves and everyone,” it said, while urging an approach to policing the curfew based on a progression from empathy, education, encouragement and finally to enforce.
It also said that enough religious and voluntary organisations still retain basic networks that can reinforce social distancing. “They are better-placed to identify the kinds of people who need assistance. In addition to the obvious ones – the elderly and infirm – people who have lost their jobs and have no incomes, people who need help with children, medical personnel who may need support to enable them to be at work for long shifts. Additionally, community-level initiatives to disseminate information to keep people healthy, such as breathing and exercise techniques are also more effectively disseminated at community level,” it added.
