Coronavirus: prisons must learn from outbreak, China’s top legal official says

Those in charge of the nation’s penitentiaries must ‘resolutely put an end to laxity and taking chances’, says Guo Shengkun, head of the Communist Party’s Politics and Legal Affairs Commission

Orders issued after more than 500 inmates and several prison officers are confirmed as being infected with the potentially deadly virus

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More than 500 Chinese prison inmates have been infected with the novel coronavirus. Photo: Weibo

Published: 9:00pm, 23 Feb 2020Updated: 11:32pm, 23 Feb 2020

The boss of China’s top law enforcement agency has told senior prison officials to “learn a lesson” from the recent coronavirus outbreaks at four facilities that left more than 500 inmates infected, state media reported on Sunday.

On a visit to Sanhe Detention Centre and Yancheng Prison in Hebei province – neither of which were among the locations affected – Guo Shengkun, who heads the Chinese Communist Party’s Politics and Legal Affairs Commission, said that those in charge must “plug management loopholes”, Xinhua reported.

“You should resolutely put an end to laxity and taking chances,” he said.

“Take extraordinary measures, take wartime measures to curb the spread of the epidemic. The biggest risk … in the penal system is from outside, and the most effective prevention and control measure is a strictly closed management.”

Prison guards must be disciplined in their approach to disease control and “cut off the external sources of infection”, Guo said.

“Learn a lesson from the outbreak … [and] never drop your guard.”