Respect the rules on…
Clean cells
Reality
Imagine that you really need to open your bowels but not being to go near the only toilet as it stinks so bad! Alternatively, what about having to sleep on the floor of a cockroach infested cell? For many detainees, such horrors are not the stuff of nightmares. They are daily reality.
Rules
The Nelson Mandela Rules (NMR) are very clear on this subject:
All parts of a prison regularly used by prisoners shall be properly maintained and kept scrupulously clean at all times.
NMR 17
Response
The overcrowding and general cleaning & de-infestation of places of detention (PoD) is outside of our control. So there’s nothing we can go to prevent detainees having to sleep on the floor. But there are some things that we can do to help with…
Respect
Document: we put up posters about NMR 17 and the health benefits of environmental hygiene, and we code patients’ medical notes if they have suffered as a result of non-compliance with NMR 17.
Demonstrate: we bring in cleaning supplies - everything from bleach through to toilet brushes. The detainees clean their cells whilst we attend to our medical work. A cleaner environment is easier to live in, and is less attractive to cockroaches.
Discuss: we talk about why environmental hygiene is important to human wellbeing. And we praise officials who make their own efforts to improve detainees’ environmental hygiene.
“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink?… or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Matthew 25:37-40