Mass Coronavirus Infection at Seoul’s Dongbu Detention Center, Infected Inmates Sharing Small Jail Cells, Neglect by Authorities and Death

[Editorials] The tragedy of the detention center would have been prevented even if only 1/100 of the efforts were made

2020-12-30, Chosun Ilbo Opinion [TRANSLATION]

Since the first Coronavirus case was confirmed on November 27, 2020 in the Dongbu (Eastern  district) Detention Center in Seoul, 769 people, or 30% of all prisoners, were confirmed to be infected with the Coronavirus, with the first death on December 29, 2020.  [Note: By December 31, 2020, additional 126 inmates were confirmed with COVID-19, bringing the total infected to 895.]

The hand waving of the note “Please Save Us” out of the grated window of the prison cell can only tell us that this is a tragic scene of human rights abuses.

Detention centers and prison facilities are not conducive to quarantine.  Moreover, in the case of the Dongbu Detention Center, more strict quarantine measures were required, because of the apartment-style, closed, corridor-type structure.  The detention center, however,  is said to have not provided masks to inmates until the first confirmed case.  They should have taken emergency measures, when the second person was confirmed to be infected with the Coronavirus on December 5, 2020, because it showed signs of spreading to the rest of the group.  The detention center, however, did not take any action and left it unattended, and it was not until the 18th that a full investigation of the inmates was conducted.  The virus spread out of control during this period.  Considering the virus incubation period, there will be more confirmed cases in the future.

The Eastern detention center supervisory body is the Ministry of Justice.  Justice Minister Choo Mi-ae (추미애) did not even care about the management of correctional facilities, which is her responsibility, because she was immersed in “ousting the Prosecutor General Yoon Seok-youl. The time period when the virus spread in the detention centers is exactly the same time as  when Minister Choo tried to drive out Yoon until the decision of suspension on December 16, starting with a request for exclusion and disciplinary action against Yoon on November 24. [Truncated]

The people of this regime have been pretending to value human rights more than anyone else. However, they ignored the pleas of “Please Save Us” by the inmates in the detention center. [Truncated]  While they threatened the lower-ranking public officials as if they would be disciplined if they were infected with the Coronavirus, no one–the Justice Minister, Vice Minister, and the heads of correctional facilities–is saying she or he will take responsibility for serious dereliction of duty for neglecting the situation that led to the mass Coronavirus infection at the detention facility.

Source:  https://www.chosun.com/opinion/editorial/2020/12/30/ZLJGIM72CBBHVKIIYIZZS7IG3E/