Philippine Prisons Know How Fast Diseases Can Spread Among Inmates

As societies struggle to contain the coronavirus pandemic, one group of people is especially vulnerable, but remains invisible to many — prison inmates.

Prison is one of the worst places to be in right now. In fact, they’re one of the most dangerous places for any kind of contagion. Many detention facilities present cramped living conditions and limited medical resources, which facilitate the spread of diseases. Unable to protect themselves from the coronavirus with social distancing, prisoners are now terrified. Driven to desperation, some even tried breaking out of a prison in Washington state, where the coronavirus first exploded in the United States.

The Philippines has the world’s most overcrowded prison system, making its inmates especially vulnerable. According to the World Prison Brief, the country had an occupancy level of 463.6 percent as of 2019, a figure that far outstrips the official prison capacity of 40,610 inmates.

A look at the living conditions of Philippine prisons reveals just how easily contagions can spread within detention facilities. Residents are packed like sardines in rooms with poor ventilation and unsanitary environments. All these conditions create a hotbed for diseases to fester.

For years, Philippine prisons have been grappling with the spread of tuberculosis (TB) among inmates. Now, this long standing battle with TB offers some insights about how prisons around the world can manage COVID-19 and protect inmates from catching the disease.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been working closely with Philippine prisons to manage TB among inmates. Manila City Jail, for example, has infection control measures like thorough entry screening and mass screenings. This aids early detection of TB among inmates.

Prisoners who are diagnosed with TB are sent to a regional TB infirmary in Calamba, Laguna province. There, there are GeneXpert testing units that can detect TB bacteria within two hours. According to the ICRC, patients at the infirmary are “isolated according to their bacteriological status to prevent cross-contamination.”

There, they receive treatment. The duration of TB treatment varies from six months (for regular TB) to two years (for drug-resistant forms of TB).

Having a separate facility to treat TB patients serves to curb the spread of TB among prison inhabitants, as infected individuals are extricated from congested communal living. Being treated at the infirmary gives TB patients a much higher chance of recovery compared to receiving treatment in prison.

“Just because they are in jail, it does not mean that they should not receive the same standard of healthcare as are those in the community. They must be treated equally when it comes to standard quality health care,” warden of Calamba regional TB infirmary Elizabeth Garceron told ICRC.

Around the world, prison systems are crumbling under the pressure of the coronavirus threat. Anxieties about the spread of the virus have seen inmates engaging in riots, causing deaths in some cases. As emergency measures to deal with the coronavirus, some prisons, like those in Iran and Australia, even released inmates to decrease the crowding.

Social distancing and extensive testing are imperative to contain the coronavirus, and this applies to prisons too. The methods for managing TB in some Philippine prisons — early detection, quarantine in a separate facility, and immediate treatment — could help curb the spread of coronavirus as well.

Find Koh Ewe on Instagram.