JAKARTA: Prisoners are not left out as they are roped in to help produce protective gear in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia.
They help produce masks, face shields, head covers, gowns, aprons and even healthcare supplies such as hand sanitiser in the battle against the disease, according to The Jakarta Post.
Law and Human Rights Ministry director-general of correctional facilities, Nugroho, said the protective gear will be prioritised for prisoners and prison workers who are susceptible to contracting the disease.
“For prisons or detention centres that can produce them on a large scale, it does not rule out the possibility (for the protective gear) to be distributed,” he said.
“We all must unite to fight the coronavirus,” he added on Wednesday.
Spare protective gear will be given to medical workers or local administration offices.
Inmates of Lhoksukon prison in North Aceh regency in Aceh, for example, have been distributing their self-made masks to some regions in the province.
Seventy prisons are producing face masks; some are capable of producing face shields, head covers, gowns and aprons.
Other than personal protective equipment, prisoners also make healthcare supplies such as disinfectant and antiseptic spray, hand sanitiser, sterilising chambers, intravenous (IV) poles and stretchers.
A prison in Malang, East Java, for instance, has been producing 100 litres of antiseptic liquid and sanitiser every day.
A prison in Polewali Mandar Regency, West Sulawesi, can produce three IV poles and one stretcher every day, and a prison in Tasikmalaya, West Java, can produce two sterilisation chambers a week.
The Correctional Facilities Directorate General has taken measures to curb Covid-19 transmission in prisons, such as installing sterilisation chambers and conducting virtual visits and trials in prison using video calls.
“Everyone who goes in and out of prisons or detention centres is required to wash his hands and enter a sterilisation chamber, which is available in all prisons and detention centres,” said Ibnu Chuldun, the directorate general’s secretary.
He added the prisons had prepared isolation blocks for prisoners under observation for Covid-19.
Up to February, 524 prisons and detention centres in the country held 268,919 inmates.
Due to the overcrowding, Law and Human Rights Minister Yasonna Laoly had suggested that 50,000 inmates be released to mitigate a Covid-19 contagion.