We’re not vaccinated – Hardap inmates

INMATES at the Hardap Correctional Facility claim they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 due to “maladministration, injustice and general negligence”.

Meanwhile, inmates at the Windhoek Central, Oluno, Gobabis and Omaruru correctional facilities have been fully vaccinated on a voluntary basis with either the AstraZeneca or Sinopharm vaccine.

Prison staff and inmates resort under groups prioritised for vaccination, and were in March this year invited by the Ministry of Health and Social Services to submit their needs.

They were to be vaccinated from April onwards after healthcare workers, the police, immigration officials, cross-border transport operaters, diplomats and journalists in Windhoek, Swakopmund and Walvis Bay.

These districts were epicentres during the first and second waves of the pandemic.

Yet, in a letter offenders in the B-section of the Hardap Correctional Facility sent last week, they claimed maladministration, injustice and negligence by healthcare workers at the facility, and that they have not been vaccinated against Covid-19 yet.

“We feel very neglected in terms of our health,” the inmates wrote.

They claim preventive measures such as mask wearing, sanitising and social distancing are not enforced at the facility. Despite gatherings of more than 10 people being porhibited, about 30 inmates share one cell, they say.

The facility is home to about 800 inmates serving medium to long-term sentences.

As per the daily update of the Namibian Correctional Service (NCS), a total of 197 inmates have contracted the virus at the facility so far this year.

Currently, three staff members at the Hardap Correctional Facility have tested positive and are in isolation.

Three NCS staff members have died since the outbreak of the pandemic – two at the Windhoek Central Correctional Facility, and one at the Keetmanshoop Correctional Facility.

There are currently no active cases recorded among inmates at the Hardap Correctional Facility.

However, the inmates claim they have not been tested for Covid-19.

The health ministry visited the facility last month, but has not returned to provide testing and vaccination services, they say.

Countrywide, some 632 inmates have received first vaccine doses and 164 have received a second dose.

A family member of an inmate, who spoke to anonymously, says the inmates have been complaining about conditions at the facility for more than a year and have written letters to the superintendent.

He says these letters were intercepted by prison wardens.

“I do not know why they cannot take these guys for testing. Why are these guys not vaccinated? It will be a disaster in a place like that,” the family member said.

Hardap Correctional Services superintendent commissioner Sam Franz says inmates are free to approach the senior management of the facility, but this has not been done yet.

NCS spokesperson Sam Shaalulange says it is up to the nurse at the correctional facility to request the testing and vaccination of inmates from the director of health for the Hardap region.

“I can tell you it’s not the stance of correctional facilities to neglect the health of inmates. We are there to provide offenders safe, secure and humane custody. If such instances are happening, that must be the opinion of an individual, and we will investigate whether inmates are treated rudely,” Shaalulange says.

Acting director of health for the Hardap region Berit Platt says because the NCS runs their own hospitals, inmates were not catered for regarding access to vaccines.

The Hardap Correctional Facility has about 600 inmates who need to be vaccinated.

Naemi Shoopala, the director of primary healthcare services in the health ministry, says the ministry deliberately prioritised certain groups for vaccination.

She says inmates are indeed eligible for vaccination and their access to vaccination should be arranged.