Thailand: Covid-19 Outbreaks in Prisons

[webfact]

File photo for reference only

 

Accelerate Releases; Improve Protection, Medical Care in Detention Facilities    

 

(New York, May 13, 2021) – People held in Thailand’s overcrowded prisons and detention facilities are at grave risk from Covid-19 outbreaks, Human Rights Watch said today. The Thai authorities should immediately act to ensure that prisoners and detainees have access to adequate protective measures and health care. The authorities should swiftly reduce overcrowding by releasing people who do not pose a serious and concrete risk to others.

 

On May 12, 2021, Thailand’s Corrections Department announced that 1,795 inmates in Bangkok Remand Prison and 1,040 in Central Women’s Correctional Institution had tested positive for the virus that causes Covid-19. In addition, hundreds of people detained in provincial prisons such as in Chiang Mai and Narathiwat have reportedly tested positive for the novel coronavirus.  

 

“The Thai government is obligated under international law to ensure that prisoners and detainees have adequate health protections and care, particularly during escalating Covid-19 outbreaks,” said Brad Adams, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “Besides providing health care and virus testing, the authorities should reduce the detainee population through supervised release of those held on politically motivated charges or for minor offenses, or who face greater risk from underlying health conditions.”

 

The Corrections Department reported that Thailand has 380,000 inmates across the country. Almost 20 percent are in pretrial detention, according to World Prison Brief. These include members of pro-democracy movements who have been charged but not yet tried for lese majeste (insulting the monarchy) and other politically motivated offenses. 

 

Under international human rights law, the Thai government has an obligation to ensure accessible health care for people in custody that is at least equivalent to that available to the general population. It must not deny or limit detainees’ equal access to preventive, curative, or palliative health care, regardless of citizenship, nationality, or migration status. 

 

The Thai authorities should urgently take preventive measures by ensuring that staff and people in detention have adequate personal protective equipment, access to regular Covid-19 testing, quality health care, and water, sanitation, and hygiene, Human Rights Watch said. Prison authorities should establish and maintain appropriate social distancing measures. The Corrections Department should regularly communicate in a transparent manner about the Covid-19 situation in detention facilities with staff, people in custody, and the general public. 

 

The Thai government should also follow United Nations guidance for any additional measures and take immediate steps to address prison overcrowding, including prison releases. Thailand’s releases of prisoners and detainees who are at increased risk of complications from the virus that causes Covid-19 have been far too few and too slow, contributing to preventable suffering, Human Rights Watch said. 

 

Thailand should consider reducing populations in prisons and detention facilities through appropriate supervised release of detainees at high risk of suffering serious effects from the virus, such as older people and people with underlying health conditions. The Thai authorities should also take into consideration factors such as the gravity of the person’s crime, the length of their sentence, and the amount of time already served. In addition, those who may be scheduled for release soon, those in pretrial detention for nonviolent and lesser offenses, and those whose continued detention is similarly unnecessary or not justified should also be considered for early release.

 

Following an April 5 decision by the Corrections Department to suspend all prison visits, the authorities should ensure that prisoners and detainees are able to maintain regular communication with the outside world and allow for independent monitoring of conditions in the prisons. Alternatives to in-person visiting should be put in place, such as video calls and phone calls. The visiting restrictions should be time-bound and subject to review.

 

“The Thai government needs to be forthright about the Covid-19 outbreaks in its prison system and how it intends to avoid disastrous consequences for those held,” Adams said. “Many people warned the Thai authorities that they needed to act proactively to avoid such a situation, but it seems they got caught sleeping at the switch.”  

 

Source: https://www.hrw.org/news/2021/05/13/thailand-covid-19-outbreaks-prisons

 

-- 2021-05-13

[Bkk Brian]

35 minutes ago, webfact said:

“The Thai government needs to be forthright about the Covid-19 outbreaks in its prison system and how it intends to avoid disastrous consequences for those held,” Adams said. “Many people warned the Thai authorities that they needed to act proactively to avoid such a situation, but it seems they got caught sleeping at the switch.”  

Human Rights Watch not pulling any punches........

[ThailandRyan]

3 minutes ago, Bkk Brian said:

Human Rights Watch not pulling any punches........

No punches being pulled, but does this Government truly even care with all of the human rights violations they undertake daily because of certain laws that are meant to protect the image of Thailand and of certain folks.

[mark131v]

The prison situation may well be the one incident that makes the mask slip!

 

They have lied, they have cheated the numbers and they have completely failed, I expect more deflection from people in responsibility any time, now....

 

What is the old saying, you can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all the people all the time or words to that affect, I feel the dinosaurs in charge are learning this the hard way!

[worgeordie]

No visitors allowed for a while now, so the infections must come

from new inmates that are not been tested before been introduced

to prison population, or the guards. with the overcrowding in most

prisons ts going to spread rapidly 

regards Worgeordie

[Cake Monster]

3 hours ago, Bkk Brian said:

Human Rights Watch not pulling any punches........

I think that many people on this Forum could have predicted that there would be outbreaks in the Prisons.

They are a Petri Dish for all kinds of diseases and viruses, with the prisons being of poor Quality in the way of Sanitation and  Prisoner Welfare.

Now the Cat is out of the Bag over the Prison Infections, it is sure to shed light on the appalling conditions Globally, that many are held in, and hopefully this Covid outbreak will go some way to getting some of the wrong put right.

[dinsdale]

Never really been human rights in Thai prisons. Megre food, most survive on relatives supplying food, sometimes 100's in one big cell where you cant actually turn over when lying on the floor trying to sleep, poor sanitation etc. Can't see this changing.

[Deli]

They don't take care of their people outside of jail, who in this world believes that they will take care of inmates ?

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Round 1:

 

March 18, 2021:

Seventy seven foreigners test positive for Covid at Immigration detention centre

 

Round 2:

 

April 4, 2021:

The Corrections Department has suspended visits to prisoners and detainees in all prisons, from Monday until May 5^th, after over 100 prisoners and prison officials in Narathiwat and Surat Thani provinces were found to be infected with COVID-19.

 

Round 3:

 

April 27, 2021:

More than 100 Chiang Mai prison inmates test positive for COVID-19"

 

Round 4:

 

May 13, 2021:

the Department of Corrections admitted that nearly 3,000 detainees tested positive for Covid-19.

 

Anyone see a pattern here?  It's nothing new. It's been going on for quite some time. And all the things Corrections claimed  they were doing/going to do after the prior outbreaks didn't stop this latest and largest one.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

FWIW, the Thais aren't the only ones to have had serious COVID problems in their prisons/jails... Even the U.S. had its share of very bad problems in that regard.  And it wasn't either fully reported or timely reported by authorities there either.

 

...

"A year later, one in three inmates in state prisons are known to have had the virus, the data shows. In federal facilities, at least 39 percent of prisoners are known to have been infected. The true count is most likely higher because of a dearth of testing, but the findings align with reports from The Marshall Project and the Associated Press, U.C.L.A. Law and The COVID Prison Project that track Covid-19 in prisons.

 

The virus has caused misery and loss in many places, but its destructive power has been felt intensely among the incarcerated, who have been infected at rates several times higher than those of their surrounding communities."

...

“Corrections institutions have continuously failed to take even the most basic life-saving measures to protect incarcerated people from Covid-19,” said Maria Morris, a senior staff attorney for the A.C.L.U.’s National Prison Project."

 

 

(more)

 

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/04/10/us/covid-prison-outbreak.html

 

Edited May 13, 2021 by TallGuyJohninBKK

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

The Times had this footnote in their year long series of reports on the COVID problem in U.S. prisons and jails... Sound familiar?

 

"There was no uniform national reporting system for Covid-19 in correctional systems, and state prison systems sometimes released some data for months at a time before abruptly stopping, without explanation.

...

Some state prison systems, the federal prison system and ICE did not regularly provide facility-level data for inmate infections or disclose the number of tests conducted on inmates or correctional staff members. In those situations, The Times either used the most recent facility-level numbers provided by the detention system or showed only the systemwide total."