of prison staffs in the management of prison from 400 facilities holding
people deprived of liberty. The key finding of the project within 18 months
of the pandemic outbreak is that different policies, practices, and activities
were introduced by correctional and detention agencies to prevent and to
mitigate the threat of COVID-19 in closed settings.
ii. Rapid Needs Assessment (RNA) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) in which
the FGD supported some of the RNA findings. Some prisons had developed
their own strategies to address COVID-19, and these were adapted and
improved over the course of pandemic.
iii. Training and courses on COVID-19 awareness for prison authorities in the
Southeast Asia and South Asia. For example, UNODC based on a request
from the Correctional Services, Maldives had conducted a training titles
“COVID-19 Awareness Course for Personnel Working in Prison or Detention”
targeting healthcare professionals in the prison facility. The training course
was aimed at providing participants with up-to-date techniques and
practical tools to understand and to overcome the spread of virus in places
of detention with a major focus on COVID-19.
iv. E-learning Course on Nelson Mandela Rules which is tailored to the needs of
prison and correction officers.47 It will assist the user to understand and to
apply the knowledge in the settings. It is available in various languages
including Malay, Indonesian, Thai, and Vietnamese. The Malay version of the
course was developed with the support of the International Red Cross
Committee (ICRC), Malaysia. Through its collaboration with ICRC, UNODC
had trained 20 Malaysian prison officers as trainers in the course in October
2021 and it was conducted twice.48
v. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) items were delivered upon request.
UNODC has provided 1.2 million facial masks to the Department of
Corrections, Thailand in June 2021 and it was delivered to Thailand since its
prioritisation during the consultation on pandemic preparedness. UNODC
has also provided facial masks, hand sanitisers, and vitamin C for the
Department of Prison, Malaysia. This is among the support provided by
UNODC to prisons and cities in the region.
Mr. Tanaka reiterated that UNODC will continue to support prison authorities in the
region and hoped that prison authorities will take the opportunity from the support
to improve the management of prison settings.
47
Since the introduction of Nelson Mandela Rules in 2015, UNODC had invested heavily in its translation as a
practical guidance and to promote the actual application of the rules in the operation of prison authorities. The
course on Nelson Mandela Rules is free of charge, self-paced and followed by a certification. The course contains
seven interactive modules covering five thematic areas and 122 rules. The first module deals with the
introduction to the rules and the last module is final assessment. The remaining modules cover five core areas
of the prison management such as prison conditions, prison regime, safety and security, healthcare, and
safeguards.
48
The training course had received 35,000 participants from more than 150 countries since 2019. More than
20,000 participants had successfully managed to complete the training course. The training course is available
online at: https://www.unodc.org/elearning/
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