Undue delays : K-P struggles with vaccine hesitancy in jails

Barely aware of the outside world and the coronavirus’s several variants, for many languishing in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s jails the superspreader virus is a mere hoax.

However, when prisons were identified as potential Covid-19 hotspots, vaccinating inmates became a priority. Now, despite past claims of vaccination drives inside jails, those recently out of incarceration deny being inoculated.

Naeem, a 43-year-old resident of Peshawar, who was recently released from Central Jail Peshawar after having spent a month there for a dishonored bank cheque, while talking to The Express Tribune informed that claims of prisoners being vaccinated were a sham.

“Most prisoners I talked to had received their first dose but were waiting on a second one for a while,” he said. Others like him, who are brought to jail for shorter durations are only asked about their vaccination status but no proof, like inoculation certificates, is required, as per Naeem. “During my month in jail, I did not see any precautionary measures in place nor did I witness any seriousness regarding the vaccine in both staff and inmates,” he added.

Ghulam, who was recently released after serving three years in the same jail as Naeem, concurred with his assessment. “During the first wave there were some standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place in a few barracks but at the time of my release everyone had forgotten about the existence of the virus,” he said. Ghulam, who was incarcerated in a murder case, said that the jail was not run by the prison administration but rather by inmates who had been there for a long time. “The prisoners who have been serving for a long time decide who gets the vaccine and who does not. Besides, most inmates were from tribal areas and believed that Covid-19 was a myth,” Ghulam remarked.

However, according to the K-P Prisons Department, vaccination drives were ongoing as 8,589 prisoners in Peshawar, Mardan, Bannu, Haripur, and other major jails had been fully inoculated. Furthermore, the department’s officials denied claims of not following safety protocols and stated that no deaths had been reported from the coronavirus in the province’s prisons.

The ongoing inoculation drive in prisons, however, has not been as fast-paced as previously believed. A prison official, speaking to the Express Tribune on the condition of anonymity, laid the onus of delay in vaccinations on inmates. “Prisoners are afraid of being vaccinated and make every effort to avoid getting a jab,” he said. The official also conceded that prisons had been lax in checking for the vaccination credentials of those who came to visit inmates.

Inspector General Prisons, Khalid Abbas, when asked about the current situation, stated that the situation in prisons had improved due to measures enacted in a timely manner. “K-P has a regular system of vaccination and checking of prisoners. Public health facilities for inmates in jails across the province, including Central Jail Peshawar, are a top priority for us,” he informed The Express Tribune.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 13^th, 2021.