Continued inaction is risking lives of prisoners and staff
‘Our government must do more’ said Richard Garside in an interview with The Guardian today.
He continued, ‘If you set out to create an institution with the express intent of concentrating and transmitting Covid-19, it would probably look much like a prison.’
At least 10,000 to 15,000 prisoners need to be released from the prison system, to allow for single cells, but the government are not responding quickly enough to avert more casualties.
Richard said ‘If we can release thousands of prisoners in an expedited way and the sky doesn’t fall in, then we could think about who we imprison and why, and consider different ways to sanction people. Some will always need to be contained, but prisons at the moment are a 19th-century solution to a 21st-century problem.’
His comments come at a time when the Centre is launching a Europe-wide project focusing on 13 countries and their responses to Covid-19.