[사설]More than 1,000 people in the Eastern detention center corona, reveal the person in charge

With an additional 120 confirmed cases of Corona 19 related to the Seoul Eastern Detention Center yesterday, the total number of infected people exceeded 1,000. Prime Minister Jeong Sye-gyun and Justice Minister Chu Mi-ae visited the Seoul Eastern Detention Center yesterday and repeatedly apologized to the public. In addition, the Democratic Party said yesterday that “it takes heavy reprimands from the people for not responding to the initial action.” However, the spread of Corona 19 at the Eastern Detention Center in Seoul is not a matter that can only be passed through an apology. It is being confirmed one after another that this incident is a disaster caused by poor preventive measures and belated countermeasures.

Minister Chu wrote on his Facebook page on the 1st, “(If an infectious disease occurs), the usual weaknesses will be revealed in the legal administration, but the overcrowding of camps is very fatal in the case of a large-scale infectious disease. That’s right. Knowing this, the Department of Justice should have taken appropriate precautions. However, even basic quarantine measures, such as not properly providing masks to ordinary prisoners, were not implemented.

Even after the confirmed cases came out,’Golden Time’ was missed as a passive response. At the Seoul East Detention Center, although the first confirmed cases came out on November 27 last year, the first full examination was conducted only on December 18. As the decentralization of prisoners progressed late, testimonies are being made that the Seoul East Detention Center placed general prisoners and confirmed patients in the same room at the end of last December. In a situation where the spread of Corona 19 continues, things like the Seoul East Detention Center can happen again at any time. From now on, quarantine measures for correctional facilities should be further strengthened to prevent further spread. The influx of viruses should be prevented by expanding the inspection of new prisoners, and the apartment-type correctional facilities should be thoroughly tested quickly. It is also necessary to create an environment in which practical distance is possible by lowering the density. It is also urgent to identify responsibilities. The quarantine manual for correctional facilities has been properly prepared, and the Seoul East Detention Center should carefully examine whether the measures were taken according to the manual, and the reporting process after the occurrence of the confirmed case. The first step to preventing recurrence is to strictly censure the person in charge according to the result.