ABSTRACT

In spite of all the measures taken during the past decades, the Romanian prison system is still considered overcrowded by European standards (111% above rated capacity in June 2020). However, very much against the trend set by other European jurisdictions, Romania did not opt for an early release scheme to fight COVID-19. Instead, the government took steps to strengthen its internal mechanisms to ensure safe interactions between staff and inmates, between inmates themselves, and between inmates and the outside world.

This paper explains why that was the only option on the table for the Romanian authorities and then provides a preliminary assessment of the consequences of this strategic decision. Overall, with no known case of infected prisoners, while serving their sentence inside the penitentiary system, it seems that the route taken by the Romanian prison authorities was an effective one, at least in terms of minimizing the outbreak of Covid-19 in the prison system. At least so far … However, the legal, psychological, and experiential consequences of these strict medico-carceral measures for the prisoners and their families remain to be explored.

摘要

尽管在过去几十年中采取了所有措施，但罗马尼亚监狱系统仍被认为按欧洲标准过于拥挤（到2020年6月比额定能力高111％）。但是，与其他欧洲管辖区设定的趋势大不相同，罗马尼亚没有选择与COVID-19对抗的早期释放计划。相反，政府采取了措施来加强其内部机制，以确保工作人员和囚犯之间，囚犯自身之间以及囚犯与外界之间的安全互动。

本文解释了为什么这是罗马尼亚当局桌上唯一的选择，然后对这一战略决定的后果进行了初步评估。总体而言，没有已知的被感染囚犯案例，尽管在监狱系统内服刑，但罗马尼亚监狱当局采取的途径似乎是有效的途径，至少就减少监狱中的Covid-19爆发而言系统。至少到目前为止……然而，这些严格的医疗措施对囚犯及其家人的法律，心理和经验后果仍有待探索。