Health Education as A Tool For Curbing The Spread of Covid 19 Among Prison Inmates in Delta-State

The emergence of COVID – 19 outbreak and pandemic has been a threat that affects every sector of Nigeria’s economy including prison inmates. To combat the COVID-19 outbreak, severe measures have been put forward to help curtail the spread. However, prison inmates are one group of people that little or no attention is given irrespective of the record of the COVID- 19 in the sector. This study was designed to examine health education as a tool for curbing COVID-19 among prison inmates in Delta State. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised 2135 prison inmates in Delta State from which a sample size of 427 inmates was randomly selected from five prisons, using systematic sampling. Interviews and structured questionnaires were used as instruments for data collection. Data collection was done by the researchers and two research assistants (prison warders) in each of the five prisons visited. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha. The study revealed the relationship between prison congestion and coronavirus spread, the government’s actions to prevent the coronavirus spread and the relevance of health education as a tool for curbing the spread of coronavirus among prison inmates in Delta State. From the finding of the study, it was concluded that health education is a key tool for curbing the spread of covid-19 among inmates in Nigeria prison hence it was recommended that government should employ prison health educators to help provide health knowledge and information to prisoners in the prison.