This is good news.
Though prison health reform was not part of the NLD election platform or manifesto, it is said that it was part of the first hundred days mandate. Change in prison systems is slow. And planning is faster than implementation.
There are very simple actions that could be taken to reduce overcrowding. Speeding up trials is not one of them.
Jamie
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Myanmar govt to provide better health care in all prisons by 2025
Hein Myat Soe
Myanmar Times
13 January 2020
The Ministry of Health and Sports said it hopes to implement better health care in all prisons across the country by 2025, focusing in addressing infectious communicable and non-communicable diseases, a senior official said.
Dr Sithu Aung, director of Prison Health under the Ministry of Health and Sports, said his office is already conducting pilot projects in prisons in Yangon and Mandalay to check tuberculosis and HIV diseases.
He said they are also preparing to conduct regular check-ups on non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension in the prisons.
“By 2025, we aim to provide comprehensive health care services in all prisons,” he said. “We will discuss Non-Communicable Disease Department.”
U Sithu Aung said that under its current five-year Prison Health Strategic Plan, they hope to address problems related to communicable diseases such as TB and HIV by 2023.
He said that his officer are also deploying more health staff in prison across the country to help in addressing normal illnesses suffered by inmates and they made arrangements with different hospitals to send doctors to the prisons to conduct checks on the health of prisoners once a month.
The country’s 46 prisons and 50 labour camps are notoriously overcrowded, making the country’s 0ver 90,000 prisoners prone to illnesses.
The government, with the help of international agencies, is trying to address the overcrowding problem, with expansion of some prisons and construction of new ones. The government is also looking to speed up court trials as part of efforts to decongest prisons.
https://www.mmtimes.com/news/myanmar-govt-provide-better-health-care-all-prisons-2025.html
