Al-Rawi: 957 prisoners qualify for covid19 release

Some 957 prisoners are set to be released from prison in an attempt to prevent the spread of covid19 there.

Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi made this announcement on Friday at the Ministry of Health’s daily covid19 media briefing.

He said the people who qualified for release fell under eight categories. These included 84 people who were convicted of summary offences; 62 people convicted summarily of indictable offences; one person convicted of an indictable offence; 137 people charged with summary offences but unable to access bail; 16 children with the same issue of being charged but not being able to access bail; and 44 people held for being in default of maintenance fines.

Al-Rawi announced one more category which was suggested by the Director of Public Prosecutions – people who were convicted of a summary or indictable offence, but are in their final year of imprisonment. There are 459 people in this category.

“In looking at the covid19 virus, every bed and every ventilator matters,” Al-Rawi said.

“If a prisoner contracts covid, that prisoner is entitled to a bed in the same circumstances that an average citizen would be. So in managing the covid crisis, there is a competition for beds.”

Al-Rawi said, so far 121 people have been freed. Those people were considered low-risk prisoners and were monitored over the course of their incarceration.

He also announced that an updated regulation has come into effect which now clarifies that the Chief Medical Officer and Minister of Health have the ability to quarantine anyone as they see fit once they are test positive for covid19.

The regulation put in the Public Health Ordinance 10, says the CMO and minister have the authority to “to restrain, segregate and isolate people affected by the virus.”

“This is to clarify some of the parameters some people have uncertainty about,” Al-Rawi said. “It is an expressed clarification of the law.”

He said the new regulations were published on Thursday night.

The new regulations took effect hours after when an attorney representing two people seeking justification for their quarantine at Caura Hospital, decided to withdraw a court action during a virtual hearing on Friday afternoon.

In a third announcement, Al-Rawi said by next week, the country will have 12 virtual courts. He said the installation of the virtual courts would save the country close to $80 million a year in prisoner transport costs.

He said four of the courts will be at the Golden Grove prison, another four at the maximum security prison, one at the Eastern Correctional and Rehabilitation Center, another at the women’s prison, one more at the PoS prison and one at the Youth Training Centre.