Death Penalty News

Social distancing isn’t an option – all inmates who pose no threat should be released now with money, free phones and wifi So you’re locked down and you’re a bit scared, but you’re safe. George is 70 years old and he’s locked up. He has served two years of an eight-year sentence and is expecting to be released by 2022. If he lives that long. He had no idea when they put him inside that fraud could carry the death penalty but that’s what he’s facing now. Because George is one of the 2,000 prisoners already identified by justice secretary Robert Buckland as having an underlying health issue that, were they in the wider community, would require shielding. But in jail his safety is outside his control. Any prison officer – many of whom are still pleading for PPE – can come in and out of his cell, and there’s nothing he can do about it. His wing has been designated the isolation wing for prisoners with Covid-19, so he knows he’s in close contact with the virus: in fact, prisoners...

"We will not release prisoners convicted for corruption, illegal logging, terrorism, drug crimes, gross human rights crimes or transnational organized crimes." Jakarta. The Justice and Human Rights Ministry passed a new decree on Thursday allowing the release of 30,000 prisoners, including juvenile delinquents, to avoid mass coronavirus infections in Indonesia's overcrowded jails.  "We are trying to suppress the spread of Covid-19 in our prison system," Nugroho, the acting director-general for correctional facilities, said on Wednesday. "The inmates are vulnerable because most of them share a cell. The risk of contagion is high since our jails are overcrowded," he said.  Indonesia has 1,677 coronavirus cases by Wednesday, almost double the number a week ago. There have been 157 deaths and only 103 recoveries. The government has imposed a large-scale social distancing that includes the closure of schools and offices and a ban on r...