Emiten recomendaciones para evitar Covid-19 en las cárceles
Originally published by Publinews on 20/03/2020
Summary
The National Office for the Prevention of Torture issued 13 recommendations:1. Provide persons deprived of liberty and administrative personnel within the prisons with drinking water, soap, medicines and minimum prophylactic kits. 2. In relation to new people entering the prisons, they must be subject to constant monitoring for a period of 12 days, contemplating the incubation period of Covid-19. 3. Optimize the prison’s open spaces in order to mitigate overcrowding of people deprived of liberty. 4. Consider the implementation of an isolation area within each detention center for the isolation of possible contagions with the necessary resources. 5. Non-essential visits should be limited only to one family member, who will undergo extreme health control measures and he/she must not be a senior citizen. 6. Maintain constant monitoring by the Ministry of Public Health and Social Assistance to the custody staff, managers and nurses of each detention center. 7. Provide training to sector monitors on symptoms to detect possible cases of Covid-19. 8. Place gel alcohol dispensers in all areas of detention centers. 9. Instruct on the mandatory use of masks in population with respiratory symptoms. 10. Implement an exclusive area where the elderly and / or with chronic diseases such as diabetes, bronchial asthma, heart problems and others are located. 11. Make the necessary coordination with the judicial authorities and the National Institute of Forensic Sciences to establish the mechanism for the immediate transfer of the patients with symptoms of Covid-19. 12. At the time of finding a person deprived of liberty, custodian or center staff with symptoms of Covid-19, the immediate transfer to the healthcare centers established by the Ministry of Public Health should be arranged. 13. Request a special area in the Temporary Hospital installed in the “Parque de la Industria”, as well as in the National Specialized Hospital of Villa Nueva, Guatemala, for the isolation and care of persons deprived of liberty.