Ask an Expert: Overseeing prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Caron McCaffrey, Director General of the Irish Prison Service

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, prisons pose a particularly challenging environment in which to prevent the spread of disease. In the final post in PRILA’s Ask An Expert series, PRILA had the opportunity to ask Caron McCaffrey, Director General of the Irish Prison Service, about her experience overseeing Irish prisons during COVID-19, and the Prison Service’s response to COVID-19the pandemic.

The PRILA Project (Prisons: the Rule of Law, Accountability, and Rights), located at Trinity College Dublin under the leadership of Prof Mary Rogan, aims to improve policy and practice in the governance of Europe’s prisons.

 

1. The WHO and Penal Reform International have highlighted that prisons require effective protective and preventative measures to help control the spread of the virus. Are there any aspects of the prison environment that make management of COVID-19 particularly challenging?

 

Preventing the spread of infectious diseases in prisons is both a public health concern and a human rights imperative. Prisoners retain their human rights during incarceration, including the right to health. These rights impose a legal duty of care on the State to protect the lives, health and well-being of persons deprived of their liberty.

 

Prisons represent high-risk environments for the transmission of diseases and spread of infection due to the nature of the prison environment and its operations which includes:

• The Prison Service is home or the place of work for over 7000 people who work and live in close proximity, which supports transmission of infection.
• Facilities (such as showers, toilets, tables) and equipment (such as gym equipment) are shared.
• The risk that prisoners may not undertake good hygiene practices.
• Underlying health or addiction issues may mean that prisoners are more at risk in relation to infectious diseases.
• Prisoners typically have a greater burden of disease than the general population, including chronic disease, blood borne virus infections and TB.
• Prison estates are frequented by a wide range of members of the public on a daily basis, any of whom could transmit an infection either inward or outward from the prison. These include: visitors; healthcare professionals; teachers; social workers; service-delivery personnel.

The prisons have continued to work at an average of 85% occupancy during the pandemic which means that the difficulties associated with social distancing have been at the forefront of planning, given that over 52% of prisoners share cells (on a double, triple or 4 man occupancy basis).  

 

 

2. Can you provide some examples of how the Prison Service has responded to the current crisis, particularly with respect to vulnerable groups such as the elderly or those with underlying health conditions? What are the benefits and challenges associated with these strategies?

 

IPS has representation as a member of the vulnerable persons sub-group NPHET and we have worked closely with the nationally co-ordinated response to the epidemic from an early stage. Prisoners are categorised as a vulnerable group facing greater risks partly due to underlying health issues with currently approximately 400 prisoners in the system aged 55 years or older, with 130 who are over 65 years of age and many who have very complex healthcare needs.

 

At the start of March, we formed an Emergency Response Planning Team to formulate contingency plans, review policies and procedures, implementing actions, developing the necessary structures, and communicating in relation to the challenges posed by COVID-19.

 

From a very early stage we put structures and systems in place to establish areas of responsibility, prescribed methods of communication and sources of information to ensure that Government decisions and Public Health advice was implemented in full, interpreted to be successfully and consistently applied across the prisons system.

 

Measures introduced to Irish prisons include:

• To mitigate the risks associated with overcrowding, the granting of temporary release to low risk prisoners was assessed on a case by case basis. As a result, the number of prisoners in custody has been reduced to allow for an effective infection control regime which initially included physical distancing but now incorporates necessary cocooning and the temporary short-term quarantining of prisoners.
• The introduction of a basic health check, including taking of temperatures for all persons, including staff, entering prisons from 29 March;
• Suspension of physical family visits, replaced by the introduction of video visits;
• Quarantining for 14 days of all newly committed prisoners, in order to reduce the risk that a new committal who might be incubating the virus could spread COVID-19 within the prison;
• Isolation of suspected cases or prisoners with symptoms to prevent the risk of transmission of infection as determined by the prison healthcare team;
• “Cocooning” of vulnerable prisoners, including all prisoners aged 70 years or more or those that are deemed medically vulnerable;
• Comprehensive training for IPS staff and the provision of appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) across the prison estate;
• Strong communication with staff and prisoners, including two prison newsletters published weekly and regular COVID-19 information leaflets for prisoners and newsletters for staff
• Establishment of a robust contract tracing model, following WHO’s best practice model.

 

3. Can you share with us some thoughts on how both prisoners and staff have been coping with the pandemic?

 

We are very conscious of the impact on people’s mental health and are acutely aware of the supportive role families and friends play in prisoners’ efforts to rehabilitate themselves while in prison and prepare themselves for life in the community after release. Acknowledging the impact of visitor restrictions on prisoners and to mitigate this, we introduced a number of initiatives across the whole estate:

• All prisoners were provided with additional and extended length of time phone calls.
• Video phone facilities were installed across all prisons to allow for video-calls with families. We received positive feedback from both prisoners and their families on this. Video-calls provide the opportunity to see family and friends in the comfort and security of their own home; it saves time, cost and effort involved in traveling to the prison, and provides opportunities to show changes to home life.
• The introduction of cashless transfer facilities to allow families to provide credit to prisoners for the tuckshop.

 

Communications to staff and prisoners has been critical throughout this period. This includes communication of clear simple messages, mirroring what happens in the community around issues such as social distancing, respiratory etiquette and good hygiene practices. The IPS set up a dedicated team to co-ordinate communication of information about the pandemic to prisoners. Staff and Red Cross Volunteers produce a weekly newsletter to speak directly to prisoners and keep them informed of all important messages. There is also a special newsletter for prisoners who are in quarantine or cocooning with tailored messaging. Prisoners who are in quarantine or cocooning can use the prisoner phone system to access prisoner services from psychology, chaplaincy, resettlement or Merchants Quay.

 

Staff receive communications providing them with information in advance of measures being put in place and the operational impact. We have distilled information from Public Health and  issued FAQs to staff on the COVID-19 pandemic and guidance relating to what this means in the workplace. We ensured that our frontline staff were part of the priority group for testing in line with the provision there for healthcare workers.

 

4. What are the challenges that lie ahead for the Prison Service as the government eases restrictions? And, are there any lessons learned from the response to COVID-19 that may shape Irish prisons going forward?

 

We have many measures in place that have supported us in controlling the spread of COVID-19 in our prisons. As society re-opens, we need to determine how we maintain control of the risk of the spread of infection in a closed environment, while maintaining good order, health, safety and security in the prison. One of our biggest challenges is the easing of visitor restrictions while controlling the spread of infection among staff, prisoners, visitors and the wider community due to increased exposure and minimizing the impact on vulnerable prisoners with addiction problems. There are many lessons learned in relation to the importance of communication and managing the expectation of prisoner’s families. These will help shape how we engage holistically with stakeholders going forward.

 

Thank you to Caron McCaffrey, Director General of the Irish Prison Service for sharing her insights and experience of managing Irish prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic. To read the unabridged version of this blog post, please visit the PRILA blog.

Suggested citation: 'Ask an Expert: Overseeing prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Caron McCaffrey, Director General of the Irish Prison Service' (7 July 2020) http://tcdlaw.blogspot.com/2020/07/ask-expert-overseeing-prisons-during.html

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