Lock them up to die - prison bird flu plan - New Zealand

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http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/manawatustandard/0,2106,3533357a6407,00.html

 

 

MANAWATU STANDARD

 

Lock them up to die - prison bird flu plan

08 January 2006

By HELEN BAIN

 

Some prisoners would be set free, but the most dangerous would be

locked away and left to take their chances and the dead buried in mass

graves if an Asian bird flu epidemic hits New Zealand's jails.

 

Government planning documents reveal that low-security prisoners would

be released, but the most dangerous prisoners would be left at the

mercy of the killer disease.

 

Entire prisons would be sealed - nobody would be allowed in or out for

up to six weeks - and mass graves would be dug in prison compounds to

dispose of bodies.

 

The proposals, details of which were obtained by the Sunday

Star-Times, are part of Corrections Department contingency plans to

deal with an Asian bird flu pandemic hitting New Zealand and its 7500

prison population.

 

Three Turkish siblings died last week from the flu - the first human

deaths from the disease outside China and South-east Asia. There have

been 152 cases of the disease in humans, resulting in 75 deaths.

 

Bevan Hanlon, president of the prison officers' union the Corrections

Association, said a " brainstorming " document covering possible

responses to a bird flu outbreak in prisons included a proposal to

release low-security prisoners.

 

Prisoners who might be freed included those nearing the end of their

sentences, and those convicted of relatively minor crimes such as

drink driving. Serious or dangerous high-security prisoners would not

be freed, Hanlon said.

 

He said the union supported freeing low-security prisoners if there

was a flu outbreak.

 

Another proposed response to an outbreak was to isolate entire

prisons, allowing only medical staff in or out, he said.

 

Prison officers would be locked in with prisoners for the duration of

the outbreak, and no new prisoners could be brought in.

 

" Once there was an outbreak in a prison it would be a matter of

closing the doors and going from there, " Hanlon said.

 

" They are saying six weeks and it would be all over, and after that

they go in and clean up what is left, unfortunately. "

 

Those confined in prisons were hit much harder by communicable

diseases than were those in the wider community, and the casualty rate

in prisons would be much higher than on the outside.

 

A Health Ministry planning scenario, based on the 1918 flu epidemic,

says up to 40 per cent of New Zealanders could contract influenza and

up to 33,000 people could die.

 

Because prisoners were close together, especially in currently crowded

conditions, disease spread quickly, and a bird flu pandemic could cut

a swathe through prison populations, Hanlon said.

 

" That's what it is like when they get the ordinary flu - it travels

quickly. "

 

The union wanted to ensure prison officers would be on the list of

those guaranteed supplies of the anti-flu drug Tamiflu.

 

Officers would give whatever help they could in a crisis, but needed

to be kept informed about what was happening, Hanlon said.

 

Health Ministry spokeswoman Karen Roe said managing prisoners in the

event of an outbreak was Corrections' responsibility, and the ministry

would not tell it what it should do.

 

Sensible Sentencing Trust spokesman Garth McVicar said prisoners

should not be freed under any circumstances, even if keeping them in

jail meant they stood a high risk of dying from bird flu.