Published Friday, June 5, 2020
Nearly 2,000 prisoners in
isolation to prevent covid-19

 By  the A.M. Costa Rica  staff

As part of preventive sanitary measures for covid-19, 1,907 prisoners who have just entered jails must serve isolation for 14 days, the Ministry of Justice announced on Thursday.

“Before the first case of covid-19 appeared in Costa Rica, we began to identify spaces not only to isolate people who would eventually catch the virus, but also to locate people who came from outside of the prisons," said Dixiana Alfaro, head of the Penitentiary Health Services. "This has been done to follow up on these people so that, in the event of developing symptoms, we will undergo a diagnostic test.”

The measure has also been applied to foreigners who have entered jails for various crimes, said the ministry.

According to the ministry, the majority of isolated prisoners are men. Of these, 9 are in the Juvenile Prison, and 171 are serving preventive detention for non-payment of alimony.

According to the ministry, any case of covid-19 has yet been detected in prisons. "This shows that we have taken the pertinent actions to prevent the entry of the virus," said Diana Posada, representative of the ministry.

The ministry provided 3,000 spaces for prisoners to comply with the isolation orders. These places are inside prisons, in areas that were used as gyms, classrooms, and rooms for intimate visits.

Also, other areas were conditioned to prevent 630 spaces that could be used by prison staff, to comply with the isolation in the event of a possible case of covid-19.

In April, the National Institute of Criminology issued guidelines so that prisoners who present covid-19 symptoms could be sent home temporarily for three months, as long as their health emergency persists.

According to Fiorella Salazar-Rojas, the minister of Justice, she said these orders will be made “under obligation to comply with the court order, so these extraordinary evaluations (of prisoners) will be carried out through a technical process based on medical criteria and taking into account a series of factors that analyze the process of care of the prisoner from the moment he entered the jail, to determine that the transfer to a semi-institutional regime (referring to being at home) does not represent a risk for the person himself, for the victims or society."

According to the ministry, before sending prisoners to their homes, medical and criminal evaluations will be taken and placed into consideration for their temporary release. The court ordered the examinations of the prisoners, said the ministry.

So far, orders to send the eligible prisoners home have not been made. Although the virus has not spread throughout the jails, the ministry wanted to be prepared.

According to the ministry, this process of releasing inmates has two stages.

Stage one evaluates the prisoner, based on a set of guidelines ordered by the Limón Province Court. Authorities must first analyze prisoners whose health condition is within the risk range described by the Ministry of Health. Authorities will take into consideration short sentences and those complying with their sanction. Another key factor for temporary release is whether or not the eligible prisoner is a risk for third parties.

According to the ministry, inmates could be sent home for cases of chronic kidney failure, heart disease, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune diseases, immunosuppressed patients (such as those infected with AIDS), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchial asthma with frequent crises, cancer patients, people over 65, pregnant women, women with children in prison, hypertension, diabetes and morbid obesity.

It is also crucial for those eligible for temporary release that they have a place to stay so the prison won’t be releasing them into the streets.

Another factor taken into account is the type of crime committed by the inmate. Authorities must also take into consideration the professional opinions of interested parties such as psychologists, lawyers, among others reported.

In the second stage, a list of eligible prisoners who meet all the criteria for temporary release will be sent to the National Institute of Criminology, where authorities will have final say after their analysis for approval or rejection.

According to the ministry, released prisoners must stay in their homes for three months. After that period, authorities will re-evaluate the current situation of the health emergency in the country.

Prisoners released are those who represent the least amount of risk for committing a new crime, said Salazar.

There are currently no confirmed cases of prisoners infected with covid-19. However, in April the ministry confirmed a case of a prison police officer infected with the virus at the Reinaldo Villalobos jail in Alajuela Province. He received the mandatory quarantine order to stay in isolation at his home.


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What other preventive measures should the authorities have to prevent an outbreak of covid-19 in prisons?   We would like to know your thoughts on this story. Send your comments to news@amcostarica.com