The Impact of COVID-19 Outbreaks in the Prisons, Jails, and Community Corrections Systems Throughout Europe

ABSTRACT

This article documents country-level differences in the extent of COVID-19 outbreaks in corrections systems across the European region. Variations in the timing, duration, and intensity of front-end, in-prison, and back-end mitigation strategies are also identified. We conclude by providing a preliminary assessment of the effectiveness of these mitigation strategies, particularly in those countries that combined transparency and proactive, early release mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• international
• prisons
• corrections
• COVID-19
• pandemic
• Alternatives to incarceration
• Early release mechanisms
• Prison reform

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. The total number of inmates reflects only member states that provided data on both January 1 and April 15, 2020.

2. The Romanian prison system reports that no inmate has contracted COVID-19 in its prisons during the first several months of the pandemic, but we are skeptical of this claim. See the country-specific review in this volume for more detail.

3. Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Georgia, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Montenegro, and North Macedonia reported no outbreaks between January and April (Aebi & Tiago, 2020).

4. For example, Spain reported that 46 inmates and 238 staff members tested positive while Italy reported 37 infections among inmates and 163 among staff members.

5. Other countries/regions that released inmates between January 1 and April 20 as a tactic to prevent the spread of COVID-19 included Monaco, Iceland, Slovenia, Andorra, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Armenia, Spain (Catalonia, state administration, and total), the Republic of Serbia, Albania, and Azerbaijan.

6. Turkey has the second largest prison population among all European countries and holds seventh place globally (World Prison Brief, 2020).

7. Other countries/regions that have achieved prison-population reductions, but not through the active release of inmates, included Lichtenstein, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Austria, North Macedonia, Greece, Bulgaria, Malta, Moldova, Hungary, Montenegro, Latvia, Estonia, Slovak Republic, Lithuania, and Georgia.