PDRC Chairman praises efforts to protect inmates' health, safety

Manama, Dec. 10 (BNA): Prisoners and Detainees Rights Commission (PDRC) Chairman, Nawaf Mohammed Al-Ma’awda, has affirmed that the efforts exerted by the General Directorate of Reformation and Rehabilitation to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) at reformation and rehabilitation centres and detention facilities are distinguished and professional, as they have achieved great success in ensuring the highest levels of prevention and protection for inmates, detainees and personnel. He was commenting on the Directorate’s success in being the first reformation organisation in the Middle East to have won an international award for its compliance with global health and safety protocols against COVID-19, granted to it by an international quality company. He pointed out that the PDRC was following closely on all pre-emptive and precautionary measures implemented by the General Directorate of Reformation and Rehabilitation across the reformation, rehabilitation and detention centres, noting that such measures have been widely appreciated since the outbreak of the pandemic in Bahrain last February. Al-Ma’awda added that the Interior Ministry was proactive in ensuring the health and safety of detainees and inmates through its successive decisions, including the suspension of visits to them, allowing video communication between inmates and their relatives, the daily disinfection of all the buildings and facilities and the provision of all medical and hygiene requirements for inmates to protect their health. He affirmed that since the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic at the world level, no cases have been reported among inmates and detainees, noting that the landmark achievement was the fruitful outcome of the integrated precautionary measures put in place by the Interior Ministry thanks to directives of the Minister of Interior, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa, and the close follow-up of the Ministry’s senior officials, especially those of the Public Security and the General Directorate of Reformation and Rehabilitation. He asserted that the relevant Interior Ministry’s general directorates and directorates have coordinated their efforts to prevent the spread of COVID-19 across reformation and rehabilitation centres, citing the Health and Social Affairs Directorate’s keenness to coordinate with the competent authorities to meet the inmates’ health needs through booking appointments and online consultations with doctors at the Salmaniya Medical Complex. The Information Technology and Electronic Systems Directorate also conducted the notary transactions for the inmates with the Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry’s Notary Directorate remotely, he added. The precautionary measures also included the establishment of courts’ branches at the reformation and rehabilitation centres to hold remote trials, and linking chief prosecutors with detention centres, he also said. Concluding his statement, the PDRC chief indicated that the Interior Ministry’s efforts to combat the spread of the pandemic have been characterised by transparency through providing accurate information about the health situation at the reformation, rehabilitation and detention centres, which proves its keenness to protect the life, health and safety of inmates and detainees.