COVID-19 poses an extraordinary risk to prison populations. Efforts to prevent and mitigate COVID-19 in the Caribbean are likely to fail if strong prevention and control measures are not carried out in prisons.
In Dominica, there have been no confirmed COVID-19cases in prisons. However, with an outbreak of COVID-19 at the Dominica Prison Service, the lives of approximately 204 prisoners, 68 prison staff, and the general public will be at risk: potentially placing tremendous strain on the public health system.
On Friday, 29 May 2020 the CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (CARICOM IMPACS) with the generous support of the British High Commission, Port of Spain, delivered much-needed sanitation supplies and other COVID related supplies to Dominica Prison Service to help prevent and minimise the risk of infection and transmission of COVID-19 in the Dominica Prison Service.
An air shipment of the basic sanitation supplies arrived at the Douglas-CharlesAirport, Commonwealth of Dominica, today. The supplies included infrared thermometers, as well as cleaning products such as disinfectant, liquid soap, bleach, hand sanitizers and other necessary supplies. The Regional Security System (RSS) airlifted the supplies to the Douglas-CharlesAirport, Dominica, Roseau.
Speaking at the airport tarmac, Mr. Kenrick Jean-Jacque, Superintendent of Prisons, Dominica expressed his “gratitude for this timely gesture of the donation of supplies which would assist the prison population, staff and the wider community in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Lt. Col. Michael Jones, Executive Director (Ag), CARICOM IMPACS, who was at the airport to witness the delivery said that “a transmission of COVID-19 within the prison will have an amplifying effect not just in the prison but also within the general public. We need to ensure that this vulnerable prison population, as well as prison staff, are not forgotten during the Pandemic”.
The supplies provided are in accordance with guidelines issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) for the prevention and control of the pandemic in prisons (WHO, 2020).
Over the past two weeks, CARICOM IMPACS and the RSS has successfully donated the supplies to the prisons and correctional services in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Suriname. Within the next week, approximately Six (6) other CARICOM Members will receive similar assistance.
In addition to the items provided to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 in prisons, on 7 May 2020, CARICOM IMPACS collaborated with the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) to provide a virtual training session to more than 500 frontline officers on measures to protect themselves in the line of duty. This effort strengthened the capacity of prison staff to better manage their operations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and also complements the ongoing efforts by CARICOM IMPACS, the British High Commission and the RSS to provide basic sanitation support to CARICOM Member States.
The donation of these supplies will encourage and assist with the accelerated adoption of WHO guidelines for prisons and other places of detention as well as help mitigate the spread of the pandemic and reinforce security within CARICOM.
Prisons are what Slavery left behind, historical surpluses of un-employable post Emancipation “freed” men/wo, untrained generations later, that have become victims of the system they had no part in creating.The poor and Mis-Educated are the ones that service the Legal system, in the name of keeping society safe. We continue to waddle in the Rat infested waters the Caucasian gave us in the name of Democracy. What we really want are not PRISONS, but REPARATIONS to better our conditions on a wider scale. The Gov’t looks like it is willing to accept Funding, not to Educate but tu Incacerate .Studies have shown that proper Information/Education tend to reduce prison populations.
COVID 19 is statistically no more dangerous than seasonal flu, stop listen to ‘official reports’ and do some research, you will see it for yourself… there is no evidence to warrant the extreme worldwide measures put in place. This is simply the world powers bullying the entire world population into submission to follow their agenda. You have curfew and draconian measures in place for something that is statistically less dangerous than seasonal flu. Numbers don’t lie and the numbers show that the death rates related to this desease is actually less than average flu death rates. Our leaders are simply errand boys for this agenda They do the bidding of their European master and will even go as far as punishing their local populations to impress their European Massa! Destroying the local economy so Europe/America/China can step in later with the ‘financial aid’ they use as an excuse to control us. Stop try fool people, nobody doh believe that COVID stupidness again!
I’m in total agreement with you.
Prior to this monster becoming the so called PM,our country was blessed, yes, we had our issues like every other country,but nothing like these past twenty years.
It’s like this guy has become a curse to the nation. Nothing can go right in this country,everything is upside down.
Domonica and Dominicans have become beggars, we cannot take care of anything local,every time for everything, so other country has to come to our rescue. For how long this will go on.
Skerit and his bunch of mercenaries are just fleecing the country . When will this stop?
Nonsense. them man already quarantined in the prison, how they getting COVID-19? All you have to do is stop visitors for a few weeks. the supplies needed in the prison is beds and matresses, toilets, showers and the occasional visit from the pest and parasite control agency. Waste of money. little to no impact.
I am fed up with all that covid-19 news beçause for us in Dominica the only covid-19 we are plagued with is Roosevelt Skerrit and his governments, whether is the administration of 2005, 2009, 2014 or 2019. To be fair to covid-19, not one person has been killed in Dominica and so far we have only had 18 cases with most of them very mild. Roosevelt Skerrit has destroyed Dominica, destroyed every manufacturing ability he met us with, destroyed Ross University and destroyed the future of Dominica. Roosevelt Skerrit is the poison, the plague and covid 19 that destroying our Dominica