The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Future of the Prison

• In Event: Prisoners and Prisons (Panel 2 of 3)

Abstract

Beginning with the discovery of ‘jail disease’ in the 18th Century, health experts have recognized that the prison is a near perfect incubator of contagious disease. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic, therefore, public health authorities and human rights groups advocated immediate decarceration of overcrowded prisons to save lives and stop the spread of the virus. Globally, an estimated 5 percent of people in prison were released. Those who remained incarcerated were subjected to a “lockdown” regime bordering on long-term solitary confinement in many jurisdictions. The consequences of these severe conditions on mental and physical health are only just emerging. The ramifications for future prison reform efforts may be even more profound. If a deadly pandemic is not enough to instigate a reimagining of the role of prison in society, it is unclear what could.

Author

• Shadd Maruna, Queen's University Belfast