CONCLUSION
recommendations.45 In Italy, also due
to the riots, monitoring activities never
fully stopped, but from March to May
2020 most of the monitoring bodies in
fact suspended their activities and even
the NPM drastically reduced its visits.
While the principle of ‘do no harm’ requires monitoring bodies not to put
persons concerned health at risk, the
fact that places of detention are closed
off more than ever and the separation
of persons concerned became a standard practice to prevent the spread
of COVID-19 (see 2.4 Right to Health) requires NPMs to be particularly
attentive.
PROMISING PR AC TICE
In Germany, the National Agency
for the Prevention of Torture conducted interviews with staff and
persons concerned via telephone
or video conference as an alternative to visits. In addition, questionnaires were sent. Developments,
measures, and procedures were
monitored and documented.
3. CONCLUSION
COVID-19 has certainly challenged persons working with or in the criminal
justice system to an unknown extent. Especially in the initial phase, there
was much of uncertainty on how to deal with this unprecedented situation as regulations from the responsible ministries sometimes changed
weekly. While the coordination improved over time, there is still a need
to develop a coherent strategy and guidelines for future pandemics. The
respective deliberation should be informed by research. Thus, more indepth research on the various regulations and their benefits and necessity
as well as the collection of good practices, are required. However, often
a major challenge in conducting research and making efforts to improve
the situation of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities who
are deprived of liberty is the lack of data and access for researchers to
relevant institutions. Especially in Germany and Italy, there are little to
no numbers available on persons in preventive measures, and they are
frequently excluded from statistics. A complicating factor is undoubtedly
the diversity of systems in the countries.
In its diversity, the countries have in common that the pandemic highlighted and exacerbated existing challenges, most evidently overcrowding.
In Austria and Germany, the numbers of persons admitted to preventive
15