A non-governmental organization (NGO), Youth Initiative for Drug Research Information Support and Education in Nigeria (YouthRISE Nigeria) has donated Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs), COVID-19 information and educational materials, sanitary kits, hand sanitizers, and immunity-boosting medications, to staff and inmates of Enugu Maximum Correctional Facility. While donating the items, YouthRISE Nigeria stressed the need for special attention to be given to female inmates, saying provision of palliative support to prison staff and inmates was part of the organisation’s COVID-19 emergency response to the less-privileged.
Presenting the items at the Correctional Centre, Executive Director of YouthRISE Nigeria, Ifeanyi Okechukwu represented by Chukwudi Eze, called for decongestion of prisons in the country, considering the overcrowded prison settings and the vulnerable. Okechukwu said: “Correctional facilities are the easiest place for COVID-19 to surge which would undeniably lead to fatal outcomes with humans confined to overcrowded cells and correctional staff who have to commute to their various communities and back to these facilities. “This is due to the fact that precautionary measures such as social distancing, self-isolation, constant washing of hands within the prisons may be impracticable due to the over-crowded condition.”