Sonke Gender Justice: Reduce prison population to curb coronavirus
Non-profit organisation Sonke Gender Justice is calling on government to institute an early release from prison of the elderly, women and children to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The organisation’s Zia Wasserman says they welcome President Cyril Ramaphosa measures to curb the outbreak, but is concerned over the spread of the virus in prisons.
“It is because of the basic conditions our prisons are in, which is severe overcrowding in almost all our prisons, physical, social distancing is almost impossible in our prisons. And we are talking about some cells that have 60 people sharing one sink, we don’t know how people are going to be washing their hands.”
Wasserman wants government to consider reducing the prison population by releasing the elderly, women and children early to prevent the spread of the virus in the densely-populated prisons.
“We know with other infectious diseases like HIV and TB they spread rapidly in prisons and so we are just concerned that without precautionary and practical measures COVID-19 will be spreading in our prisons sooner than you think,” she says.
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