The Risk of COVID-19 Infection in Prisons and Prevention Strategies: A Systematic Review and a New Strategic Protocol of Prevention.

Massimiliano Esposito,Federica Ministeri,Nunzio Di Nunno,Aldo Liberto,Francesco Sessa,Monica Salerno

doi:10.3390/healthcare10020270

Massimiliano Esposito, Federica Ministeri + Show 4 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare10020270

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Abstract

Health risks within prisons are well known and have worsened with the 2019 coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19), becoming a public health emergency. To date, there are more than 10 million inmates in the world; in most cases, conditions are bad and health care is scarce. A SARS-CoV-2 outbreak inside a prison is extremely rapid. The aim of this systematic review was to analyze all possible prevention techniques to reduce the risk of COVID-19 related infection within prisons. A systematic review of the literature was performed according to the PRISMA guidelines. Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, and Google Scholar were used as search engines from 1 January 2020 to 1 November 2021 to evaluate the prevention of COVID-19 in prisoners. A total of 1757 articles were collected. Of them, 486 duplicates were removed. A total of 1250 articles did not meet the inclusion criteria. In conclusion, 21 articles were included in the present systematic review. From this analysis, it emerged that the most common COVID-19 prevention methods were the screening of the entire population (prisoners and workers) inside the prison through swab analysis and the reduction in overcrowding in prisons. Few studies concerned the prevention of COVID-19 infection through vaccination and the implementation of quarantine. To our knowledge, this is the first systematic review that evaluates the prevention of COVID-19 within jails and the real effectiveness of all possible methods used and published in the literature. Finally, a very useful strategic protocol is provided to reduce the incidence of infection and to control and manage COVID-19 in prisons.

Highlights

Health risks inside prisons, in overcrowded and under-resourced ones, are well known
A further aim of the present review is to suggest a very useful strategic protocol to reduce the incidence of infection and to prevent COVID-19 infection in prisons
The incidence of COVID-19 was lower in prisons where there was an adequate number of prisoners and in those in which detainees were housed in single-cell units [34]

Summary

Introduction

In overcrowded and under-resourced ones, are well known. The release of prisoners is a highly debated topic: on the one hand, it could reduce the overcrowding of prisons, and on the other hand, it would put prisoners on probation who may not have a home to live in This could lead to an increase in crime. For this reason, some countries have tried to implement hygiene rules inside prisons [8]. A recent survey stated that 80% of inmates are in favor of a vaccination campaign inside the jails Even despite these preventive and restrictive measures, the infection rate for SARS-CoV-2 is still very high, with serious repercussions on the mental health of prisoners [17]. The present systematic review collects all the prevention strategies within prisons and aims to create a single strategy capable of effectively limiting COVID-19 in prisons

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