As prison guards demonstrated in Lisbon on Friday (April 18), a union blog warned that outbreaks of scabies and other skin conditions were threatening health and safety in jails, due to the increasingly worsening financial situation and overcrowding.
Talking to Lusa news agency, president of the prison guards national syndicate Jorge Alves said that “due to the lack of money we’re beginning to notice a lack of hygiene and outbreaks of scabies”. The outbreaks, so far confined to jails in Braga, Setúbal and Carregueira, have started to affect the guards themselves, he added.
One is reported to have caught the disease from an infected mattress. Alves explained that because of financial difficulties, prison authorities have had to cut down on the use of cleaning products – often just using water where in the past they would have used bleach and creolin.
“The only thing we have in good supply is prisoners,” a fellow guard told CM TV. “We don’t have money for anything – not even for washing up liquid for the dirty dishes.”
The prison guard’s union called a strike last week (April 17), refusing to do night shifts during the week as well as any weekend work.
Reasons for the action centre on poor conditions and lack of pay reviews.
As the service promises to keep up the action until at least June 6, the “Guardaprisional’s Blog” (http://guardaprisional.wordpress.com/) adds that mice are now compromising prison security as they have started eating through CCTV cabling.
