COVID-19 did not spare the prisoners and the staff of the Kosovo Correctional Service, despite the measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus. As of mid-December, there were 136 officials and 32 prisoners with coronavirus, two of whom lost their lives. From this institution they say that despite these cases, they have succeeded to manage the pandemic quite well, but that some of the projects that were foreseen for 2020 had to be postponed.
The Director of the Kosovo Correctional Service, Nehat Thaci in an interview for KosovaPress, stated that 2020 has been a challenging year. But despite this, he says no activity has been suspended inside Kosovo prisons. In order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus in Kosovo’s prisons, family visits were prohibited, but prisoners were provided with more frequent family phone calls and virtual Skype communication, which is now installed in several correctional and detention centers.
