Ministry of Justice "Prison Facilities Social Distancing Level 3, Visit Restrictions and Additional Transfers Planned"

Entering Emergency Duty System... Considering Restrictions on Lawyer Visits and Expansion of Parole

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Ministry of Justice will raise social distancing to level 3 for correctional facilities nationwide for two weeks until the 13th of next month. The main point is to completely restrict inmate treatment systems such as visitations and education, and to expand parole to prevent the worsening of symptoms or additional infections of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in advance.

On the 31st, the Ministry of Justice announced COVID-19 measures targeting correctional facilities nationwide and decided to take immediate action. Lee Yong-gu, Deputy Minister of Justice, who directly announced the measures that day, stated, "We will strengthen quarantine and inspections within correctional facilities to prevent any further additional infections."

First, a level 3 social distancing system will be applied to correctional facilities nationwide for the next two weeks. This means completely restricting inmate treatment such as visitations, work, and education to minimize contact between inmates. In particular, visitations with attorneys will also be restricted. Staff will immediately enter an emergency work system, and external activities will be prohibited in principle.

Additional transfers to reduce the inmate density at Dongbu Detention Center, the epicenter of this cluster infection, are also being considered. The Ministry of Justice had stated that since 345 confirmed cases were recently transferred to Cheongsong Prison, the density at Dongbu Detention Center would not exceed 120% even if confirmed cases occurred there afterward. However, as additional confirmed cases continued to emerge, they ultimately decided to consider other transfer locations.

Parole will also be expanded for labor prisoners, inmates with underlying diseases that could worsen severely, and model inmates. In addition, measures will be taken to prevent further spread among asymptomatic individuals. Rapid antigen tests will be conducted for all correctional facility staff and inmates to fundamentally block infections caused by asymptomatic carriers.

Deputy Minister Lee said, "We have tried to prevent the spread within correctional facilities vulnerable to infection amid the nationwide spread of COVID-19, but we apologize once again to the public as this situation occurred due to the limitations of detention facilities and insufficient preemptive quarantine measures. We will strengthen quarantine and inspections within correctional facilities to prevent any further additional infections and do our best to stabilize the current situation quickly."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.