The Trade-Off Of Ternary Goals And The Selection Of Policy Tool Combination For Prison Epidemic Prevention And Control

During the period of COVID-19,prison systems around the world have become the hot spot of the outbreak.In order to control the spread of COVID-19 in prisons,a variety of COVID-19 policies have emerged in prison systems around the world,but the performance of COVID-19 policies in prisons varies greatly.This study conducted a comparative study on the COVID-19 policies of prisons in 30 countries.According to the logic of theoretical researchempirical research--policy suggestions,it analyzed the process of making trade-offs in epidemic prevention and control in various prison systems,identified various combinations of prison COVID-19 policies formed during this process,and analyzed the reasons for the differentiated epidemic prevention and control performance.To provide recommendations for optimizing the prison system’s ability to respond to public health emergencies.In the theoretical study,this study divided the prison epidemic prevention and control policies into three categories:restrictive policies,compensatory policies(material compensation measures,spiritual compensation measures),and large-scale release policies.It is found that there are two main contradictions in prison epidemic prevention and control:the contradiction between public health and public safety,and the contradiction between public health and the protection of legal rights of detainees.Three objectives of epidemic prevention and control in prisons were identified:public health,public safety and the protection of detainees’ rights.Based on this,the functional connection between policy objectives and policy tools was clarified,and a three-way objective--policy tool combination analysis framework was constructed.In the empirical study,this study used multi-case comparative analysis and fsQCA method to find that restrictive policies and mental compensation policies were necessary measures for epidemic prevention and control in prisons,while large-scale release policies were not.Based on QCA method,two core paths for effective epidemic prevention and control in prisons were verified,which were Path 1:restrictive policy+material compensation measures+spiritual compensation measures;Path 2:Restrictive policy+spiritual compensation measure+mas release policy.This indicates that the prevention and control of prison epidemic should pay attention to the choice of policy mix in differentiated situations.Resource availability,priso share,and punitive culture are the boundary conditions for the selection of prison epidemi prevention and control policy mix,and affect the policy objective weighing and polic selection of prison administration departments in various countries.The low availability o resources led to the failure of restrictive policies,the failure of compensatory measures t meet the needs of detainees to protect their individual rights,and the failure of large-scal release policies were the reasons for the poor performance of epidemic prevention and contro in some national prisons.Therefore,this study provides policy recommendations on epidemic prevention and control in prisons.To achieve effective epidemic prevention and control in prisons,we need to pay attention to the following four aspects:1)follow the healthy and informed working method and give play to the key role of public health departments and experts in decision-making;2 Use systematic working methods to improve the availability of resources in the prison sector 3)Implement diversified material compensatory measures according to the local situation and pay attention to spiritual compensation;4)Selective use of mass release policies.The epidemic prevention and control in prisons provides reference for the formulation of nationa epidemic prevention and control policies.To achieve a good national epidemic prevention and control,economic objectives,public health objectives,public safety objectives,and individua rights protection objectives need to be balanced.Strong organizational control and pay attention to material and spiritual compensation are the keys to achieve a good nationa epidemic prevention and control.