Stopping the spread of COVID-19 in prisons

Across Ireland, nearly 200 inmates are volunteering with the Red Cross to keep the virus at bay, promote healthy environments and increase vaccine acceptance among their peers

Sporting a black T-shirt with the seven Fundamental Principles of the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement, Tom* is serving a sentence in an Irish prison… and he is also volunteering with the Red Cross.

“I’m part of a group of people trying to make every prisoner’s life better while in jail, trying to learn and use that knowledge to better my own life and others’, using skills I have and developing more,” he said.

Like him, almost 200 other inmates are offering their time and skills to help each other.

Prisons have been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 across the globe — but not in Ireland. This was the first country in the world to introduce the Community Based Health and First Aid programme in a prison setting, with inmates themselves as Irish Red Cross volunteers and peer-to-peer educators.

The initiative, driven forward by inmate volunteers trained and supported by the Irish Red Cross, has a strong focus on infection control to promote clean and healthy prison environments. It was piloted in Wheatfield, Dublin, in 2009, and is now being run in 12 prisons through a partnership with the Irish Prison Service and Education & Training Boards.

Since the onset of the programme, more than ten years ago, some 1,000 inmates have been involved in the programme.

When the pandemic hit this project became more important than ever, and with great success: Irish prisons, with around 3,700 inmates, went for nearly six months without a COVID-19 case. After that, small outbreaks were contained quickly — and no prisoners were hospitalised or died.

“I like to be involved in the Red Cross because I get to help people, especially with COVID-19. It’s nice to help people at this hard time. I also got to meet some lovely people, and I love the work we do,” explained one of the inmates who is currently volunteering with the Irish Red Cross.

Over the years, Irish Red Cross volunteers in prisons have been involved in many projects to help make their communities safer: color-coded bucket and mop systems, hand-washing demonstrations, cough/sneeze etiquette… This kind of activities have played a key role in creating further awareness about the importance of preventative measures vis-à-vis COVID-19 — and have not only benefited the prisoner community, but also inmates’ families through an online family project that was piloted this past year.

With support from IFRC’s COVID-19 Emergency Appeal, volunteers have expanded their assistance in the last months: during lockdowns, staff of services including Psychology, Chaplaincy, Addiction Counselling, Resettlement Services or Teachers were not allowed to enter the prisons, so inmates started to offering additional support wherever they could — from activities to improve mental health when visits were prohibited to the delivery of educational materials, leaflets and newsletters.

Irish Red Cross inmate volunteers have also been very active in addressing vaccine hesitancy amongst prisoners: in a critical moment to achieve widespread immunisation against COVID-19, they represent a trusted and reliable source for peers to approach them with questions and concerns, provide accurate information, and help counter misinformation so all prisoners are better equipped to decide about getting vaccinated or not. As of mid-September, nearly 90 per cent of inmates had been vaccinated in Ireland.

In words of an inmate volunteer: “I just naturally enjoy helping other prisoners and people. I’m motivated to make choices in the prison system to benefit prisoners, to help those who struggle to adapt to prison life.”

*Changed for privacy reasons

More information: https://www.redcross.ie/cbhfa/

Photo credits: Irish Red Cross

By Ainhoa Larrea, IFRC