Coronavirus and its Effect on Prisons and Prisoners

As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and its catastrophic effects t ondifferent aspects of human life, including national health and security andpersonal and social wellbeing of people, there must be special considerationto the criminal proceedings and the situation of the prisons and the prisoners.There have been some initiatives in the form of regulations and bylaws tomanage the special conditions created by judicial authorities and correctionsystem to materialize the social distancing requirements in prisons. Besides,this disease and its fast spread created many chances for development of theIranian judiciary system along with the developed countries. Some of themeasures taken in this era are included in an executive order called"organization and moderation of prisons' population" and some otherinitiatives like maximizing the use of parole and probation, alternativepunishments and electronic proceedings. There have been also challengesand deficiencies in our legal system which are related to this pandemic andmust be considered carefully. In this paper, analysis has been made about theeffect of covid-19 pandemic on prisons and prisoners and challenges andopportunities created.