INTRODUCTION
1. INTRODUCTION
Why Open Research behind Closed Doors?
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we interact and live in
society. While it affects all of us, its impact is not the same for everyone.
Although persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities deprived
of liberty are overrepresented in prisons and ‘disproportionately impacted due to attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers that are
reproduced in the Covid-19 response’,4 little research has been done on
their situation during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Persons deprived of liberty are in a particularly vulnerable situation.5 On
the one hand, they depend on the state to ensure their health and well-being. However, containing an outbreak in such settings is extremely difficult
due to the proximity of living (exacerbated by notorious overcrowding) as
well as inadequate healthcare and hygiene provisions.6 This is especially
relevant during a pandemic, as closed institutions are considered ‘hotbeds
for infectious diseases’.7 On the other hand, the restrictions placed on the
persons concerned already before the outbreak of COVID-19 became
even more restrictive.8 Detention conditions worsened as the widespread
suspension of visits and rehabilitative measures caused further isolation.9
There is no one-size-fits-all approach for managing the pandemic in closed
institutions, and countries have responded differently to specific circumstances.10 Moreover, the systems in which persons with psychosocial and
intellectual disabilities are deprived of liberty varies widely among countries (see information on country backgrounds). In all their differences, it
is a common challenge that the treatment of persons with psychosocial
and intellectual disabilities deprived of liberty poses a challenge in most
countries, even under regular conditions.11 The current pandemic magnified and amplified these preexisting shortcomings.12
The present document discusses which challenges institutions encounter
in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria, Germany and Italy and
drafts recommendations on how to mitigate them to improve the situation
of persons concerned.
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