ABSTRACT

Despite several governmental guiding papers about disaster preparedness and resilience in prisons, the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic indicated that correctional facilities are not sufficiently integrated into national, regional, and local emergency planning. Disaster risk reduction management is a vital technology for crisis prevention to foster national, regional, and local disaster resilience. Also, that applies to organizations like correctional systems.

This case study of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service (SLCS) applied the TEN Essentials for Making Cities Resilient, a tool of the Sendai Framework embedded in UNDRR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign, to draft a disaster risk reduction plan leveraging disaster resilience in custody.

1.     Introduction

Climate change, globalization, accelerated urbanization, and the increasing frequency of natural and human-made disasters scale up the disaster risk of many people. During the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, the global community experienced how crucial disaster resilience is. The pandemic’s effects significantly affected vulnerable populations, including incarcerated individuals.[1] Considering the interdependencies of global health, natural threats such as pandemics, and other critical factors, disaster risk reduction management is crucial for developing appropriate resilience. [2]

1.1.        Disasters’ Impact on Our Modern World

With about 676.6 Mio. confirmed cases and nearly 6.9 Mio. Infection-related,[3] COVID-19 challenged the resilience of the world population. Globally, this extreme situation revealed financial, economic, political, and social imbalances that almost all states and societies struggled with. In the context of the pandemic, global inequalities affected the population in varying degrees in terms of infection and death rates, as well as loss of employment and housing, and the resulting increase in existing social disadvantage and health problems.[4]

Many natural and human-made threats put people’s lives and health at risk. Globalization and climate change profoundly impact human health by rising health risks more than showing beneficial health effects.[5] Regarding disaster risk, climate change is linked with a higher frequency and severity of natural hazards, including altered infectious disease patterns.  [6] For the rapid, barely controllable spread of infectious diseases, globalization is an essential driver,[5] as the coronavirus pandemic confirmed.

Whereas most natural hazards that threaten human life are more likely in specific seasons or certain geographic regions, infectious diseases are becoming more omnipresent global health risks. The longtime, worldwide combat against Malaria, AIDS/HIV, and TB justifies putting these conditions on the United Nations (UN) action plans: the Millennium Development Goals [7] and the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).[8] The strong associations between health, poverty, hunger, and all other goals require global actions. Concerning the increase of emerging or vector-borne infectious diseases and new pathogens like SARS-CoV2, the world population is also urged to work on environmental protection and climate change adaptation. The One Health approach is an integrative method for this need.[9]

1.2.      Importance of Disaster Risk Reduction

Once an epidemic or pandemic has broken out, health and daily life are affected immensely. What starts as a catastrophe can rapidly become a disaster if awareness of disaster risk drivers and disaster preparedness are lacking. Every person in a disaster area will be impacted. Nevertheless, vulnerable population groups suffer more from the consequences of a disaster. The best strategy to avoid these disparities and to mitigate disaster impact on all people is prevention.[10]

The growing urbanization on all continents is another crucial risk driver that can turn hazards into disasters.[11] For this reason, cities’ local governments are more than ever at the forefront of responding to an emergency. However, disaster management would not be enough to protect citizens and their assets effectively. The local authorities must know and reduce disaster risks and prepare for disasters. Besides, that preparedness must be guided by governance and leadership on the national down to local levels.[12]

Together with the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030, the successor of the Hyogo Framework for Action,[13] provides the foundation for the following aim:[12, p. 2] […] a sustainable, equitable and resilient global future through eradication of extreme poverty, reduction of disaster risk and losses, and increase of mitigation and adaptation efforts to confront the impacts of climate change.

The Sendai Framework supports the states as the key actors concerning disaster risk reduction and provides tools to involve local governments and further stakeholders in these risk reduction responsibilities and efforts.[14] One tool that focuses on the local level is the TEN Essentials for Making Cities Resilient, embedded in UNDRR’s Making Cities Resilient Campaign.[15] Until 2020, 4,347 local governments participated in this campaign worldwide.[16]

Although various disaster management plans may exist besides the Sendai Framework approach, it became apparent that many countries and their cities are not adequately prepared to respond sufficiently to the problems caused by the global COVID-19 spread. As a result, the pandemic developed into a catastrophe of disastrous proportions in many parts of the world. Children, women, persons of old age, and people with existing chronic diseases were significantly affected by the various negative consequences.[17]–[19] That was true for developed and developing countries.[20] Besides, certain ethnic groups suffered more from the pandemic and its consequences. These included, for example, people of African or Latin American origin, indigenous peoples, and other minorities.[21], [22] However, living conditions became also more difficult for marginalized social groups such as people with disabilities, immigrants, refugees, people experiencing homelessness, and persons in custody.[23]–[26]

Without a doubt, those vulnerable populations were excessively endangered in a pandemic scenario. Concerning the official recommendations for self-protection,[27] most of these persons could not follow them because of their harsh living conditions. That applied particularly to incarcerated persons or migrants and refugees in camps for whom enhanced hygiene measures and social distancing were almost always impossible.[26], [28]

1.3.       Disaster Preparedness in Prisons

Within marginalized societal groups, persons in custody may be impacted significantly negatively by disasters.[29] Data on the recent pandemic confirm a higher infection rate and case fatality compared to the general population.[30] Since custodial individuals were sentenced to forcible confinement, they would generally not be allowed to leave many prisons’ often inhumane living conditions during a prolonged disaster.[31] Thus, it is unsurprising that the reports of bloody riots and revolts with numerous dead increased.[32]

Although some national governmental guiding papers were published about disaster preparedness and resilience in prisons [33], [34] resulting from eye-opening disaster-related incidents in jails, correctional facilities are not sufficiently integrated into national, regional, and local emergency planning.[31], [35, p. 8], [36]

Even though correctional facilities are generally under state jurisdiction, they are located within cities and municipalities: Confined individuals, employees, and the facilities, as such, suffer from a disaster to the same extent as citizens and municipal infrastructures.

The shortcomings outlined above in ensuring comprehensive disaster awareness and preparedness call for a uniform and goal-oriented approach at local, regional, and national levels. In order to mitigate the interface issues between different responsibilities, there is the option of breaking down the recommendations of the Sendai Framework at the local level to state institutions such as correctional facilities. The TEN Essentials should be applied at the beginning of the planning process for disaster risk reduction. Using them to build up the disaster resilience of correctional systems can facilitate and promote the integration of correctional facilities into the planning activities of local governments. Because of the interdependencies of global health, natural threats such as pandemics, and the other critical factors mentioned above, the investigation focused on the disaster resilience of correctional facilities as critical infrastructure in a selected country with high tuberculosis (TB) burden.

2.     Methods

Selecting an eligible country and correctional system for this case study occurred by defined criteria. The TEN Essentials and the planning and assessment tools by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) provided the framework for drafting an adapted disaster risk reduction plan for the chosen correctional system.[37], [38]

2.1.      Criteria for State/ Prison System Selection

For the “Breakdown of Objectives, Activities, and Indicators for Each of MCR Campaign 10 Essentials” [38], the selection of an eligible correctional system relied on the following criteria:

1. WHO must state that the country has a high burden of tuberculosis (TB).[39] As TB is an airborne-transmitted infectious disease, a high TB prevalence rate expresses a continuous risk for TB outbreaks in closed, confined-spaced, or overcrowded settings.
2. The country should be impacted by growing urbanization.
3. The country should be under a specific risk for natural or other hazards.
4. Information about the ‘country’s correctional system must be available, indicating an occupancy level above 100%, which refers to overcrowding.
5. Detailed country facts on demographics, geography, economy, finances, infrastructure, administration, disaster risk, and other characteristics must be publicly accessible.

2.2.     Selection of a State / Prison System

Based on the before-mentioned criteria, the Sierra Leone Correctional Service (SLCS) qualified as an eligible candidate for developing a local disaster risk reduction plan. The justification for selecting Sierra Leone and the SLCS is as follows:

1. Besides 15 other African countries, Sierra Leone is named on the WHO’s High Burden Country Lists for TB.[39]
2. Compared to the other continents, Africa experiences the highest urbanization pace leading to a significant imbalance between population growth and sufficient resources.[40]
3. In the last 20 years, Sierra Leone suffered 19 disasters; among these were nine floods and seven epidemics.[41]
4. The average occupancy level in Sierra Leone’s 21 prisons was 220.2% on December 2, 2019, with rising trends in the total prison population and the prison population rate since 2004.[42] A riot in the central prison in Freetown was reported, probably related to a confirmed COVID-19 case at the end of April 2020.[43]
5. For Sierra Leone, numerous reliable data sources about various specific topics are publicly available, provided by the World Bank,[44] the WHO,[45] the UN World Population Prospects 2019,[46] the World Prison Brief,[42] or the Hazard And Risk Profile Information System – Sierra Leone (HARPIS-SL),[47] for instance.

2.3.     Drafting a Disaster Risk Reduction Plan for Sierra Leone’s Correctional System

The TEN Essentials originate from the “Making Cities Resilient Campaign”[16] and reflect the fields of action of the Sendai Framework. Their gradual application in leadership/governance, integrated planning, and response planning enables the development of a resilience strategy and an action plan to implement it. The TEN Essentials are:[15]

• Essential One: Organise for Disaster Resilience,
• Essential Two: Identify, Understand and Use Current and Future Risk Scenarios,
• Essential Three: Strengthen Financial Capacity for Resilience,
• Essential Four: Pursue Resilient Urban Development and Design,
• Essential Five: Safeguard Natural Buffers to Enhance Ecosystems’ Protective Functions,
• Essential Six: Strengthen Institutional Capacity for Resilience,
• Essential Seven: Understand and Strengthen Societal Capacity for Resilience,
• Essential Eight: Increase Infrastructure Resilience,
• Essential Nine: Ensure Effective Disaster Response,
• Essential Ten: Expedite Recovery and Build Back Better.

The disaster risk reduction draft aimed to discuss, chaptered for the ten Essentials, which measures are required for the correctional system and its facilities and which stakeholders must be involved. Each TEN Essential has been worked out regarding objectives, activities, indicators, time frame, and responsibility based on the “Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities” version used for preliminary-level assessments.[37] To avoid misunderstandings in interpreting fields of action, measures, and indicators, much original wording of this scorecard version was adopted in the disaster risk reduction plan. Publicly available online sources delivered the data and information about Sierra Leone and its correctional system. The national hazard profile from the HARPIS-SL websites assisted with selecting the most frequent and most severe natural hazards, namely flooding, lightning and thunder, and epidemics.[47] As the TEN Essentials lack healthcare issues, the “Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities: Public Health System Resilience – Addendum” has also been applied to complete the analysis concerning the risk of epidemics and the spread of infectious diseases.[48]

3.     Results

3.1.       Dealing with Disasters in Sierra Leone

Within thirty years (1980-2010), flooding and epidemics impacted 221,204 and 13,447 people, respectively, causing 145 and 1,103 deaths. At 83%, epidemics accounted for the highest proportion of disaster-related causes of death. Add to this the impact of the Ebola epidemic in 2014, which had the most devastating impact on the lives of the population in Sierra Leone’s post-war history.[47]. Besides, there were regional outbreaks of Lassa fever in 2017, and the country is continuously fighting against malaria, typhoid, cholera, TB, and HIV/AIDS.[39], [47], [49] Furthermore, lightning strikes cause considerable downtime in data and communication and a corresponding economic loss whereby geographical hazard clusters can be identified.[47] Concerning the coronavirus pandemic, the Sierra Leonean health authorities reported 7.760 confirmed SARS-CoV-2 cases and 126 COVID-19-associated deaths.[50]

3.2.     Governmental Measures to Reduce Disaster Impact

In 2006, the government of Sierra Leone put the “National Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan” into effect.[51] From that point, different projects dealing with disaster resilience have taken place. One of these projects was the “Update of Sierra Leone Hazard Profile and Capacity Gap Analysis Project,” whose output was the “Hazard and Risk Profile Information System –Sierra Leone”(HARPIS-SL), provided by INTEGEMS.[47] With HARPIS-SL, the Office of National Security-Disaster Management Department (ONS-DMD) has a beneficial tool for good and reliable decision-making concerning disaster risks, which are influenced by the kind of hazards, personnel and infrastructural vulnerability, and hazard exposure.

As HARPIS-SL is a public webpage, every person interested in Sierra Leone’s national risk profile can access a broad range of disaster-related information and data. This information and data are crucial for disaster resilience planning.

According to HARRIS-SL, flooding, lightning, and thunder show the highest frequency, whereas epidemics are the hazard with the most severe magnitude, considered nationally. Due to different topographical conditions, the 14 districts of Sierra Leone may have hazard profiles and assessment results, respectively, that differ from the national results.[47]

Sierra Leone is also experiencing rapid urbanization.[47]. Two recent projects focused on the consequences and risks of this trend and promoted “Informing Resilient Recovery Policy, Planning and Investments” and “Building Transport Resilience” in Freetown.[52]

These are just a few examples of Sierra Leone’s efforts to address the increasing natural and human-made threats to society and its assets through disaster risk reduction management.

3.3.     Status Quo of Disaster Resilience in Sierra Leone’s Correctional System

Since 2014, Sierra Leone has been focusing on improving conditions in its detention centers. The Sierra Leone Correctional Service Act 2014 provided the legal basis for the “Transforming From Prisons to Corrections” project.[53], [54] It lasted from 2015 to 2019 and intended the transformation of prisons into correctional facilities. However, up to now, the goals of the transformation process have not yet been achieved. Overcrowding, poor infrastructure, and a lack of resources, to mention a few examples, embedded in a judicial sector that is operating inefficiently despite legal reform, seem to be still pressing problems.[55] These conditions make the SLCS facilities vulnerable to threats of all kinds, risking the unstoppable ending in disastrous catastrophes. Although named in the National Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan, the SLCS  is only listed as a supporting institution in waste/solid dumping and the fight against drug abuse.[51, pp. 88–89, 100–101] Thus, the correctional system is far from disaster management or risk reduction management. There is still a long way to go to achieve disaster resilience in Sierra Leonean correctional facilities, as shown by the prison uprisings due to the COVID-19 pandemic at the end of April 2020.[43]

The “Sierra Leone COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project” was approved on April 2, 2020, to combat the pandemic.[56] However, the project did not address to what extent the correctional system was comprised of public health containment measures.

In Sierra Leone, persons in custody are considered by many parts of the population to be social scum, as the following quote illustrates:[57]

In Sierra Leone, there is a belief that one should not talk about prisoners. The public perceive prison and places of detention as a place where people “should be sent to rot.”

Not-for-profit Indigenous Human Rights organizations, such as Prison Watch Sierra Leone, advocate for improving jurisprudence and human rights conditions in the correctional system.[58] Since its founding in 1996, Prison Watch Sierra Leone has been trying to counteract this attitude and is committed to respecting human rights in Sierra ‘Leone’s prisons. This mission has been supported by Sierra Leone’s 2014 Correctional Services Act and by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) training programs to ensure that the correctional facilities’ personnel comply with the Mandela Rules and the provisions of the Correctional Services Act 2014 on the human rights of persons in detention.[59] These activities indicate the government’s firm intention to improve the living conditions of the prison population in Sierra Leone and to eliminate systemic malfunctions such as corruption and disregard for human rights.

3.4.     Drafting a Disaster Risk Reduction Plan

Focused on the specific conditions and needs of the Sierra Leonean correctional system,  a draft of a disaster risk reduction plan summarized all working areas, anticipated action requirements, and related indicators, accompanied .by time frame suggestions and recommendations regarding stakeholder involvement. Table 1 (Supplement) displays the draft’s objectives/working areas, stratified by the ten Essentials. The SLCS management recently received this draft and a preliminary project management plan.

The analysis of the various fields of action revealed several organizational opportunities whose permanent collaborative integration, per the Mandela and Bangkok Rules, could benefit Sierra Leone’s correctional system concerning disaster resilience.

For instance, national non-governmental organizations have been engaged for several years to provide legal aid to suspects and detainees through paralegals.[60] A governmental decision to establish paralegals as an integral part of the national judicial system can foster justice equity and contribute to overcrowding mitigation in the SLCS facilities.

Looking over Sierra Leone’s boundaries, other examples of resilience-promoting approaches in corrections exist. The Zambian prison system, for instance, works with a, from the outbreak-containing and food-security perspective, useful approach of open-air prison farms. Given proper farm operation following international human rights regulations and based on intramural paid employment, these farms can offer multiple benefits regarding disaster resilience, e.g., (1) autonomous food production for adequate inmate feeding, (2) training and practice of hazard-adapted farming techniques concerning rehabilitation and life after being released, (3) reduction of overcrowding if farm-based housing is guaranteed in the same way as in the correctional facilities, with at least seven square meters floor area per person and a sufficient number of sanitary facilities, (4) given appropriate working conditions, promoting individual physical and mental resilience.[61]

However, ensuring living conditions per international human rights in SLCS’s correctional facilities requires constructing a new correctional facility to overcome the infrastructural and operational barriers evident in the current prison centers, especially in the main male correctional facility established in 1914 by the British government. The disaster risk reduction draft provides the framework for planning, constructing, and operating a disaster-resilient correctional facility following national legislation and the Mandela and Bangkok Rules.

3.5.     Limitations

As mentioned, the preliminary version of the Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities formed the basis for developing the disaster risk reduction plan. As a result, the approach did not elaborate on many subject areas in sufficient detail to meet all the requirements of the Sendai Framework and the WHO concerning public and prison health in an immediate roll-out. Therefore, in case of project initiation, further work on the plan based on the UNDRR “Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities – Detailed Level Assessment” version [62] and the “Health Emergency and WHO’s Disaster Risk Management Framework” [63] will be required.

Mental health aspects are not part of the current disaster management draft. However, mental resilience is vital to individual and social resilience and should be integrated into disaster resilience efforts as soon as feasible. Particularly at the interface between the intramural system and civil society, the question arises as to how prisoners who have been admitted and released can be reconciled in terms of guaranteeing health care and covering its costs. It can be assumed that hardly any prisoners have health insurance if they come from poor backgrounds. In the transformation of the national health care system, a solution must therefore be sought to ensure health care for poor population groups and cost coverage in order to assure, among other things, the necessary continuation of medical measures that were begun intramurally.

4.     Recommendations

As described above, a final, consented disaster risk reduction plan combined with an implementation strategy can serve as an addendum to governmental policy papers and regulations concerning disaster resilience on national, regional, and community levels. The plan may provide a blueprint for organizational disaster preparedness and risk management for integration in future disaster-related projects similar to the recent “Sierra Leone COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project.”[56] Furthermore, the current disaster risk reduction plan could become the starting point for a successor of the “Transforming From Prisons to Corrections” project,[54] targeting the planning, construction, and operations of a new correctional facility to house and rehabilitate persons in custody according to international human rights.

First and foremost, leadership and governance of the government, enhanced by a reliable funding mechanism, are vital for the successful planning and implementation of sustainable intramural disaster resilience.

The SLCS needs governmental enabling and enforcement to implement the necessary measures of the desired reformation and to achieve the advised disaster resilience of the correctional system. As Sierra Leone’s current President, Julius Maada Bio, said during a TED talk in 2019:[64, 14:39]

The most audacious and nation-changing events or policies or even personal choices happen when we ask, “Why not?” then make bold choices and ensure those bold choices happen.

Picking up President Bio’s question about reasons against the country’s transformation: Why shouldn’t Sierra Leone’s correctional system also be made resilient to disasters when the state leadership has been striving to improve the nation’s disaster resilience for several years?

There are no valid counter-arguments to this question, either from the public health or the international legal perspective.

5.          Conclusions

Improving the disaster resilience of Sierra Leone’s correctional system is subject to complex processes at the state and local levels. It requires the commitment of many stakeholders, from the government to the individual, to achieve sustainable progress in this direction. As presented in this paper, a disaster risk reduction plan reflects an essential resilience management tool to guide an organization through the complexity of risk reduction tasks.

The enactment of the Sierra Leone Correctional Service Act 2014, the launch of the Sierra Leone COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project in April 2020, the results of the disaster reduction project, and the Sierra Leonean Prison Project [53], [56], [47], [54] to date give reason to believe that Sierra Leone’s key decision-makers will consider a prison-specific action plan for disaster risk reduction necessary and useful. The implementation of this plan thus appears probable.

Strengthening the disaster resilience of the correctional system would also positively affect intramural living and working conditions and, thus, the physical and mental health of its inmates and employees. However, realizing a disaster resilience project in Sierra Leone’s correctional system requires bold leadership and a holistic will for change.

Under the umbrella of the SDGs, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and the Sendai Framework, making prison settings resilient ask intergovernmental organizations such as WHO, UNDRR, UNDP, and regional economic and financial institutions, like ECOWAS and BCEAO, to build a collaborative network for guiding and fostering correctional systems with prevention efforts concerning disaster preparedness and risk management. The national penal systems and their governments need concerted actions of guidance and financing to overcome structural and organizational obstacles the vulnerable prison population and their caretakers are facing regarding disaster resilience achievement.

REFERENCES

 

[1]        National League of Cities, ‘COVID-19 Resources for Vulnerable Populations’. https://covid19.nlc.org/resources/resources-by-topic/vulnerable-populations/ (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[2]            United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘About UNDRR’. https://www.undrr.org/about-undrr (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[3]            Johns Hopkins University & Medicine, ‘COVID-19 Map’, Coronavirus Resource Center. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html (accessed Sep. 15, 2020).

[4]            A. Guterres, ‘The pandemic is exposing and exploiting inequalities of all kinds, including gender inequality’, Apr. 30, 2020. https://www.un.org/en/un-coronavirus-communications-team/pandemic-exposing-and-exploiting-inequalities-all-kinds-including (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[5]            A. J. McMichael, ‘Globalization, Climate Change, and Human Health’, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 368, no. 14, pp. 1335–1343, Apr. 2013, doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1109341.

[6]            United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘Disaster Risk – Climate Change’, PreventionWeb.net, Nov. 12, 2015. https://www.preventionweb.net/risk/climate-change (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[7]            United Nations, ‘United Nations Millennium Development Goals’. https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/ (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[8]            United Nations, ‘United Nations Sustainable Development – 17 Goals to Transform Our World’. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/ (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[9]            World Health Organization, ‘One Health’, Sep. 21, 2017. https://www.who.int/westernpacific/news/q-a-detail/one-health (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[10]          United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘Prevention Saves Lives’, Disaster Risk Reduction and Covid-19. https://www.undrr.org/drr-and-covid-19 (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[11]           United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘Poorly Planned Urban Development’, PreventionWeb.net. https://www.preventionweb.net/disaster-risk/risk-drivers/urban/ (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[12]           E. A. Gencer, ‘Local Government Powers for Disaster Risk Reduction: A Study on Local-Level Authority and Capacity for Resilience’, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Center for Urban Disaster Risk Reduction and Resilience, 2017. Accessed: Sep. 03, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/assets/toolkit/documents/LG%20Powers%20for%20DRR_2017_Final_20170531.pdf

[13]           United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, ‘Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015: Building the resilience of nations and communities to disasters’, Geneva, Jul. 2007. Accessed: Sep. 15, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.undrr.org/publication/hyogo-framework-action-2005-2015-building-resilience-nations-and-communities-disasters

[14]          United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘What is the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction?’ https://www.undrr.org/implementing-sendai-framework/what-sendai-framework (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[15]           United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘The TEN Essentials for Making Cities Resilient’. https://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/ (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[16]          United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘Making Cities Resilient Campaign’. https://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/cities (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[17]           Every Woman Every Child, ‘COVID-19’, Mar. 17, 2020. https://www.everywomaneverychild.org/what-you-need-to-know-about-covid-19/ (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[18]          Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)’, CDC, Feb. 11, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/older-adults.html (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[19]          Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)’, CDC, Feb. 11, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[20]         G. Ren, ‘COVID-19: Exposing & Exacerbating Global Inequality’, Health Policy Watch, Apr. 28, 2020. https://healthpolicy-watch.news/covid-19-exposing-worsening-global-inequality/ (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[21]           N. Bhala, G. Curry, A. R. Martineau, C. Agyemang, and R. Bhopal, ‘Sharpening the global focus on ethnicity and race in the time of COVID-19’, The Lancet, vol. 395, no. 10238, pp. 1673–1676, May 2020, doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(20)31102-8.

[22]          M. J. Belanger, M. A. Hill, A. M. Angelidi, M. Dalamaga, J. R. Sowers, and C. S. Mantzoros, ‘Covid-19 and Disparities in Nutrition and Obesity’, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 383, no. 11, p. e69(1-3), Jul. 2020, doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2021264.

[23]          World Health Organization, ‘Preparedness, prevention and control of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) for refugees and migrants in non-camp settings’, Apr. 17, 2020. https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Jrae6D4y6T4J:https://apps.who.int/iris/rest/bitstreams/1275039/retrieve+&cd=19&hl=de&ct=clnk&gl=us (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[24]          M. A. Turk and S. McDermott, ‘The COVID-19 pandemic and people with disability’, Disabil Health J, vol. 13, no. 3, p. 100944, Jul. 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.dhjo.2020.100944.

[25]          J. Tsai and M. Wilson, ‘COVID-19: a potential public health problem for homeless populations’, Lancet Public Health, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. e186–e187, Apr. 2020, doi: 10.1016/S2468-2667(20)30053-0.

[26]          C. Heard, ‘COVID-19 in prisons – a major public health risk’, World Prison Brief, Mar. 26, 2020. https://www.prisonstudies.org/news/covid-19-prisons-%E2%80%93-major-public-health-risk (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[27]          Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ‘Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) – Prevention & Treatment’, CDC, Jul. 31, 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/prevention.html (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[28]          U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, ‘COVID-19 Brief: Impact on Refugees’, Jul. 18, 2020. https://www.usglc.org/coronavirus/refugees/ (accessed Sep. 03, 2020).

[29]          J. C. Gaillard and F. Navizet, ‘Prisons, prisoners and disaster’, International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, vol. 1, pp. 33–43, Oct. 2012, doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2012.05.001.

[30]          B. Saloner, K. Parish, J. A. Ward, G. DiLaura, and S. Dolovich, ‘COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in Federal and State Prisons’, JAMA, vol. 324, no. 6, pp. 602–603, Aug. 2020, doi: 10.1001/jama.2020.12528.

[31]           J. Nicholas, ‘“Just Leave Them to Die”’, The Appeal, Feb. 19, 2019. https://theappeal.org/mdc-brooklyn-jail-prison-emergency-preparedness/ (accessed Sep. 02, 2020).

[32]          United Nations, ‘COVID-19: UN teams step up efforts to protect rights in prisons, as revolts intensify worldwide’, UN News, May 05, 2020. https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/05/1063292 (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[33]          J. A. Schwartz and C. Barry, ‘A Guide to Preparing for and Responding to Jail Emergencies’, National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., Oct. 2009.

[34]          R. M. Brown, J. Cosby, A. Hall, M. Connelly, and D. Feldman, ‘Resilience in Corrections – A Proactive Approach to Changing Conditions’, National Institute of Corrections, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington, D.C., Mar. 2014.

[35]          M. A. Savilonis, ‘Prisons and disasters’, Doctoral Thesis, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 2013. Accessed: Sep. 02, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://info.nicic.gov/nicrp/system/files/028089.pdf

[36]          M. J. Akiyama, A. C. Spaulding, and J. D. Rich, ‘Flattening the Curve for Incarcerated Populations – Covid-19 in Jails and Prisons’, N. Engl. J. Med., Apr. 2020, doi: 10.1056/NEJMp2005687.

[37]          United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities – Preliminary Level Assessment’. May 2017. Accessed: Sep. 12, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/assets/toolkit/Scorecard/UNDRR_Disaster%20resilience%20%20scorecard%20for%20cities_Preliminary_English.pdf

[38]          United Nations Institute for Training and Research, ‘Local Disaster Risk Reduction Plan – Template’. UNITAR. Accessed: Sep. 04, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://learnatunitar.org/course/view.php?id=529

[39]          World Health Organization, ‘Use of High Burden Country Lists for TB by WHO in the Post-2015 Era. Geneva: World Health…’, Geneva, Oct. 2015. Accessed: Apr. 04, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.who.int/tb/publications/global_report/high_tb_burdencountrylists2016-2020.pdf

[40]         Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, ‘Africa (AFR) | GFDRR’. https://www.gfdrr.org/en/region/africa-afr (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[41]          Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), ‘EM-DAT The International Disaster Database’, CRED. https://public.emdat.be/ (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[42]          World Prison Brief, ‘Sierra Leone Prison Data’, Dec. 02, 2019. https://www.prisonstudies.org/country/sierra-leone (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[43]          C. Inveen, A. Prentice, and A. Ross, ‘Riot rocks coronavirus-hit prison in Sierra Leone’, Reuters, Apr. 29, 2020. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-leone-riot-idUSKBN22B1S0 (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[44]          World Bank, ‘Sierra Leone | Data’. https://data.worldbank.org/country/sierra-leone (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[45]          World Health Organization, ‘Sierra Leone’. http://www.who.int/countries/sle/en/ (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[46]         United Nations Population Division, ‘World Population Prospects 2019’. https://population.un.org/wpp/ (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[47]          INTEGEMS, ‘Hazard And Risk Profile Information System – Sierra Leone (HARPIS-SL)’. https://www.harpis-sl.website/ (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[48]          United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘Public Health System Resilience Scorecard’. https://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/toolkit/article/public-health-system-resilience-scorecard (accessed Sep. 04, 2020).

[49]          United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS, ‘HIV and AIDS in Sierra Leone’. https://www.unaids.org/en/regionscountries/countries/sierraleone (accessed Sep. 12, 2020).

[50]         Johns Hopkins University, ‘Sierra Leone – COVID-19 Overview’, Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, Mar. 10, 2023. https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/region/sierra-leone (accessed Jul. 25, 2023).

[51]           Government of Sierra Leone, ‘National Disaster Preparedness and Response Plan’, Freetown, 2006. Accessed: Sep. 05, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.ifrc.org/docs/idrl/672EN.pdf

[52]          Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, ‘Funded Disaster Resilience Projects in Sierra Leone’. https://www.gfdrr.org/en/region/sierra-leone (accessed Sep. 12, 2020).

[53]          The Sierra Leone Correctional Service Act 2014, vol. Vol. CXLV, No. 49. 2014, p. 31. Accessed: May 18, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://vdocuments.site/act-sierra-no-5-sierra-leone-correctional-service-act-2014-no-5-sierra-leone.html

[54]          United Nations Development Programme, ‘From Prisons to Corrections: Promoting Institutional Reform of the Sierra Leone Correctional Services’. Sep. 16, 2016. Accessed: Jan. 02, 2022. [Online]. Available: https://erc.undp.org/evaluation/managementresponses/keyaction/documents/download/677

[55]          U.S. Department of State, ‘2019 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices: Sierra Leone’, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Washington, D.C., 2019. Accessed: Sep. 13, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/sierra-leone/

[56]          World Bank, ‘Sierra Leone COVID-19 Emergency Preparedness and Response Project’. https://projects.worldbank.org/en/projects-operations/project-detail/P173803 (accessed Sep. 12, 2020).

[57]          Africa Criminal Justice Reform (ACJR), ‘Prison Watch Sierra Leone’. https://acjr.org.za/resource-centre/prison-watch-sierra-leone (accessed Sep. 13, 2020).

[58]          Diplomatic Service of the European Union, ‘Conditions in detention: EU supports Prison Watch Sierra Leone with €284,000 towards monitoring and legal aid’, EEAS Archives, Jan. 13, 2017. https://www.eeas.europa.eu/node/19824_en (accessed Jul. 25, 2023).

[59]          United Nations Development Programme, ‘Improving human rights compliance in Sierra Leone’s Correctional Services | UNDP in Sierra Leone’. https://www.sl.undp.org/content/sierraleone/en/home/presscenter/articles/improving-human-rights-compliance-in-sierra-leones-correctional-.html (accessed Sep. 07, 2020).

[60]         Open Society Foundations, ‘Innovative Efforts, Proven Results: How Timap for Justice Provides Legal Aid in Sierra Leone’, Koninklijke Brill NV, 2015, doi: 10.1163/2210-7975_HRD-9709-2015046.

[61]          A. Bellows, K. Brown, and J. Smit, ‘Health Benefits of Urban Agriculture’, Jul. 2012, Accessed: Sep. 12, 2020. [Online]. Available: http://foodsecurity.org/uahealthfactsheet/

[62]          United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, ‘Disaster Resilience Scorecard for Cities – Detailed Level Assessment’, May 2017. https://www.unisdr.org/campaign/resilientcities/assets/toolkit/Scorecard/UNDRR_Disaster%20resilience%20%20scorecard%20for%20cities_Detailed_English.pdf (accessed Sep. 13, 2020).

[63]          World Health Organization, ‘Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management’. http://www.who.int/hac/techguidance/preparedness/en/ (accessed Sep. 13, 2020).

[64]         J. M. Bio, A vision for the future of Sierra Leone, (Jul. 03, 2019). Accessed: Sep. 12, 2020. [Online]. Available: https://www.ted.com/talks/julius_maada_bio_a_vision_for_the_future_of_sierra_leone

ARTICLE INFORMATION

1.  Conflicts of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

2.     Ethics approval

Not applicable as only published data were included in the study. No individual data were collected, stored, or reported, allowing conclusions to anyone living in confinement.

3.     Consent to participate

Not applicable.

4.     Financial Support & Sponsorship

 

5.     Authorship

Stephanie Pape designed the research methodology, gathered data and information, conducted the assessment, and drafted the disaster risk reduction plan. Shiddharudha Shivalli, Kabiru Gulma, and Laurent Cleenewerck contributed to the research methodology. Stephanie Pape is responsible for the qualitative analysis, interpretation, and manuscript draft. Shiddharudha Shivalli and Laurent Cleenewerck supervised the research. Sahr David Thomas Ngaujah, Kabiru Gulma, Shiddharudha Shivalli, and Laurent Cleenewerck contributed to reviewing and editing the manuscript.

 

SUPPLEMENT

Table 1: Objectives/Working Areas of the SLCS Disaster Risk Reduction Plan within the Ten Essentials of the UNDRR* “Making Cities Resilient Campaign”

#	ESSENTIAL	OBJECTIVE/ WORK AREA
1	Organize for disaster resilience.	1.              Plan making 2.            Organization, coordination, and participation 3.            Integration 4.            Quality management (PDCA cycle) based on DRR Management 5.            Establishing and maintaining durable, effective disaster preparedness and response capacities and capabilities of the correctional system while ensuring integration in the public emergency response network with close cooperation at the sectoral interfaces 6.      Correctional facilities, municipality governments, local police, local NGOs, and community members collaborate continuously concerning surveillance of public health/natural/human-made threats/hazards and risk reduction actions required
2	Identify, understand and use current and future risk scenarios.	1.              Flooding 2.            Thunder and lightning 3.            Epidemics 4.            for flooding, thunder and lightning, epidemics, and also the other natural hazards, as well as human-made hazards for the correctional system, including exposure, vulnerability, and risk assessment 5.            Shared understanding of risk infrastructure 6.            Knowledge of exposure and vulnerability 7.            Cascading impacts 8.            Presentation and update process for risk information
3	Strengthen financial capacity for resilience.	1.              Assessment of direct and indirect costs related to flooding, thunder and lightning, and epidemics in the correctional system and the linked community areas 2.            Assigning a ring-fenced capital budget for any major working steps of the action plan necessary for resilience improvement (as listed under the Essentials 4-10) 3.            Including risk management allocations in the operating budget to maintain prison resilience status over time 4.            Assessing disaster risk levels and implications from all planning, permitting, and capital spending decisions regarding the correctional system while taking interfaces effects with communities into account, including necessary adaptions 5.            Creating incentives for inmates, homeowners, and low-income families in the facility-surrounding areas, communities, and public sector 6.            Applying/generating insurance coverage for inmates’ and employees’ lives, correctional facilities, including internal and external system-related infrastructure
4	Pursue resilient urban development and design.	Concerning correctional facilities and the linked communities/ surrounding neighborhoods: 1.              Land-use zoning 2.            New urban development 3.            Building codes and standards 4.            Application of zoning, building codes, and standards 5.            Correctional system resilience regarding flooding: for correctional facilities located in possible flood areas 6.            Correctional system resilience regarding thunder and lightning 7.            Correctional system resilience regarding epidemics
5	Safeguard natural buffers to enhance the protective functions offered by natural ecosystems.	1.              Assessment of intramural/surrounding ecosystem services/functions for each correctional facility in cooperation with communities and districts 2.            Integration of green and blue infrastructure into correctional system policy and projects, including communities/surrounding areas 3.            Transboundary environmental issues
6	Strengthen institutional capacity for resilience.	1.              Skills and experiences 2.            Education and awareness 3.            Data sharing 4.            Training delivery 5.            Languages/Literacy 6.            Learning from others
7	Understand and strengthen societal capacity for resilience.	1.              Community or grassroots organizations, networks, and training 2.            Social networks 3.            Private sector/ employers 4.            Citizen engagement techniques
8	Increase infrastructure resilience.	1.              Critical infrastructure overview 2.            Protective infrastructure 3.            Water-potable and sanitation 4.            Energy 5.            Transport 6.            Communications 7.            Health care 8.            Education, health care, correctional facilities, and other critical infrastructure buildings 9.            First Responder assets
9	Ensure effective preparedness and disaster response.	1.              Early warning 2.            Event management plans 3.            Staffing/ responder needs 4.            Equipment and relief support needs 5.            Food, shelter, staple goods, and fuel supply 6.            Interoperability and interagency working 7.            Practices and drills 8.            Quality management (PDCA cycle) based on DRR Management 9.            Maintaining durable, effective disaster preparedness and response capacities and capabilities of the correctional system while ensuring integration in the public emergency response network with close cooperation at the sectoral interfaces 10.         Correctional facilities, municipality governments, local police, local NGOs, and community members collaborate continuously concerning surveillance of public health/natural/human-made threats/hazards and risk reduction actions required
10	Expedite recovery and build back better.	1.              Post-event recovery planning – in advance of an event 2.            Lessons learned/ learning loops

* United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction