[Exclusive] Preventing Group Infections in Correctional Facilities... Ministry of Justice to Introduce '3M' Prevention Design

Reevaluation of Building Layouts and Floor Configurations Including Building and Jeonju Types... To Be Reflected in the Design of Newly Constructed Correctional Facilities

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Ministry of Justice is set to introduce improvement measures to prevent a second mass infection incident like the one at Dongbu Detention Center. The core of the plan is to reorganize spaces to alleviate the so-called "3M" conditions?close contact, enclosed spaces, and crowding?across correctional facilities nationwide. These improvements will also be applied to the initial designs of newly constructed correctional facilities, reflecting the opinions of experts such as architects and engineers.

According to the legal community on the 20th, the Ministry of Justice decided to analyze the causes of the COVID-19 mass infections in correctional facilities that occurred at the end of last year by facility and situation, and to establish improvement measures for the preemptive blocking of infectious diseases and early containment of their spread.

The mass infection incident in correctional facilities began at Dongbu Detention Center in January and spread to related institutions such as courts. In particular, Dongbu Detention Center, with its apartment-style structure, met all the "3M" conditions, resulting in a concentrated outbreak of confirmed cases between December and January.

The National Human Rights Commission also pointed out inadequate responses. Although the limitations of personnel and overcrowding in correctional facilities at the time were recognized as unavoidable, it recommended adherence to emergency response manuals due to failure to comply with key quarantine rules such as managing close contacts and segregating symptomatic individuals.

Criticism from both inside and outside was also reflected regarding the "Measures to Improve Overcrowding in Correctional Facilities" approved last month by the Ministry of Justice's Correctional Reform Committee. The plan, which mainly focused on activating parole to improve overcrowding, was analyzed as not being a fundamental solution. The disclosed improvement plan at the time contained only general statements such as "We will continuously pursue measures to ease the density of correctional facilities located in large cities and secure appropriate space per inmate to expand accommodation space."

Accordingly, the Ministry of Justice decided to reanalyze the causes of infectious disease spread within correctional facilities from the facility perspective. Since the "3M" conditions were identified as the main cause of infectious disease spread, correctional facilities nationwide will be categorized into building-type and Jeonju-type, and the current building layouts and floor plans will be examined to identify problems.

The movement paths and transportation means of inmates, administrators, and outsiders, as well as ventilation conditions, will also be inspected. The plan is to preemptively block the causes of infectious disease spread through all these processes. The appropriate ratio of single and shared cells within housing units will be recalculated. Detailed standards for appropriate area and cell occupancy will be reestablished to apply nationwide.

In particular, these improvements will be applied during the initial design phase of newly constructed correctional facilities. The designs will incorporate analyses from architectural and engineering experts, and an appropriate construction cost per pyeong reflecting the improvements will be derived.

In the mid to long term, these measures will also be applied to the Ministry of Justice’s internal directive, "Guidelines for the Promotion of Legal Facility Construction." Through related law and regulation revisions, formal manuals for correctional facility operation, design, and construction will be established. A Correctional Headquarters official stated, "Currently, step-by-step preventive measures against mass infection recurrence are in place and being operated on-site, but more professional and detailed manuals are needed. Since the design direction for newly constructed correctional facilities will also be included, a more systematic system different from the current one will be established."

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