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Committee: Human rights Topic B: Improving Prision conditions Director: Paulina Ordieres
Introduction
Reviewing current issues in correctional treatment around the world, one of the biggest problems is the improvement of prison conditions. This issue is very important because it relates to the human rights of the prisoners. On this point, the minimum standard rules for the treatments of prisoners adopted by the United Nation Congress on the Prevention of crime and the Treatment to Offenders define the standards of prison condition in detail and had served as a basic guide that must be satisfied by each country; However, allot of countries still deal with problems which delay the accomplishment of this standard.
Knowing this situation, it first takes a common review of the international instruments concerning prison condition, and how household legislation is described and what is the actual situation of the prison conditions particularly on accommodation, hygiene and medical services, clothing and bedding, and food.
Human Rights are the basic rights of every person around the world and no one should be deprived of those rights. The protection of the human rights is guaranteed by some important international instruments and should not regress.
The fundamental principle is also applied to prisoners in custody in correctional facilities and should be respected completely as long as it does not harm the purposes of their incarceration.
Making an effort to achieve this goal is expected to lead the development of prison conditions. Some basic principles concerning about the treatment of prisoners including prison conditions are mentioned in the international instruments.
The important requirements concerning to prison conditions can be found in the International Covenant on Civil and Political rights; In the 7th article it establishes that the torture or cruel, inhuman or humiliating treatment or punishment is prohibited because no one shall be subjected to that kind of treatment or punishment.
Accommodations are a basic factor for inmates to spend their prison lives and its equipments should satisfy the conditions necessary for maintaining their health in prisons. Proper equipments are also expected to contribute to the betterment of hygiene. The accommodations need not be luxurious but must be enough so the inmates can live “well” while they live in prison. Every nurse and doctor that go to prisons to health visits and they confront every day the specific problems of prison health, such as hygiene, epidemiology, nutritional needs and vitamin deficiencies.
Their work is to identify and prioritize any public health problems that exist in the prison they visit. When the danger of a health problem in prison is so big that the reaction of the penal colony health service is full, the government can put into action programs to deal with these problems, such as eliminating vitamin deficiencies, improving sanitary installations, getting reasonable and efficient medical services for all prisoners. In certain special cases, it can take more specific action such as running tuberculosis programs and building capacity in dealing with HIV-AIDS.
In prisons, the provision of food remains a sore point for inmates. Problems include food and preparation quality, portion sizes and the temperature at which the food it’s served. In many governmental systems, prisoners that have any health problem such as diabetes, HIV/AIDS, pregnancy or heart problems can request special meals and snacks only if they are authorized by a Dietcan. Vegetarians are recognized as a group with special dietary needs. Prisoners that according to their religion need a special diet can ask for one too, still, in many jails, the hygiene conditions the food goes through are extremely bad and that creates many diseases, and can even cause death.
In many jails, food is used as a punishment, if inmates aren’t behaving the way they are supposed to, they serve a product made up from ingredients of a regular meal (like hotdogs, potatoes, beans…) that were mashed together, baked and served. It is a form of punishment because of its taste and its look, even if it’s defined as a “dietary adjustment”.
Another problem many prisons have to face is overcrowding, a problem that continues in spite of falling crime rates and extensive prison construction programs. Prison overcrowding is an effect of the criminal justice problem, the over-use of pre-trial detention, along with very strict sentence practices are some examples of contributory factors. Overcrowding is the undetermined ability of prison systems to have the basic needs of the prisoners such as food, accommodation, healthcare, etc.
Inside prisons, many inmates have to face with extremely aggressive prisoners. In many places they have increased penalties for violence by inmates; they triple the 30-day maximum for punishment in solitary cells and doubled the 600 cells used for that matter. Many of the fights start because of racism and hate that each of the “groups” that are in the jails have for each other and many times the conflict gets stronger that is hard for the officers to stop them all.
Prison Condition in some countries
In India, accommodation in a prison consists of cellular and connection wards. A cell is intended for a single prisoner and a connection ward for more than one prisoner. Near the door of every ward shall be recorded the number of cubic and external feet which it contains and the number of prisoners which it is capable to lodge. On the basis of the manual, the lock up register must show the maximum space of every ward, so that the Superintendent may be able to judge at a glance if the ward is overcrowded or not. Inside Palestinian prisons and jails the human rights of prisoners are violated too. This takes the form of poor physical conditions primary in the prisons, problems with food, and problems created from the need of clear actions or policy. This is not true in every case, but the level of violations is significant and is in the majority of prisoners. Most prisoners are held without an arrest justification. Palestinian detention facilities regularly accept prisoners without making too many records, and without demanding that the prisoner have a commitment order signed by an appropriate authority, such as a judge. Inside the prisons, many are tortured, and those no longer being interrogated often suffer poor conditions that are in themselves a violation of human rights.
In Indonesia there are two types of accommodation; a single cell and dormitory. The latter is designed to accommodate 3, 5, 7, or 9 prisoners. Both types of accommodation are provided with facilities like: mattresses, pillows, toilets and bathing, ventilation and light. Both single cells and dormitories are available for prisoners and detainees as well and almost 80 percent of the prisoners or detainees are accommodated in dormitories. The placement of prisoners is determined according to the classification of prisoners and security, such as - maximum security, medium security and minimum security. In Japan, there are two types of lodging; single cell and dormitory. Both types of accommodation are sufficiently provided with a window, an electric light, and a flush toilet. Unconvicted inmates are held in single cells. Each correctional institute held inmates separately according to their sex, age and the number of previous offenses they have made. Eighty three immigrants from all over the world died during the last five years in the system of special prisons for foreigners, many of them as a result of the poor medical treatment in a place that is like the underworld; invisible and inaccessible. There are approximately 33 thousand foreigners who are shut in and suffer from terrible services that take to tragic and perhaps illegal consequences. Some spend days, weeks or months in local and state jails that have filled to the top and since they took more extreme effect in the internal safety measures, they are not focusing on other important measures like the health of the detainees. The average annual number of migrants has been tripled, and legal and undocumented migrants, or those that ask for refuge feel abandon and some do not survive the detention in the United States.
The most vulnerable of these detainees suffer from physical or mental disease, many times the medical treatment that they have rights to by the law is denied for them. They are imprisoned in a world of slow and bad treatments, with panic between the employees that watch what is happening.
It’s a hidden world of failed medical evaluations, deficient administrative practices, negligent guards, badly enabled technical people, and many other important facts that make the prison a inhabitable place. There are many studies that tell that many contagious diseases are spread inside the prisons in many places of the country, including tuberculosis and smallpox.
The prison conditions aren’t much better for women and kids. Prisons aren’t prepared to attend the specific necessities of them like the prenatal attention and it does not take on account the responsibility that the women have with their family, children are detained many times because the police think they might be in danger or they might have committed a crime.
The scorn that many people have towards the delinquents is used as an advantage to justify the awful treatments in which the police put them under.
Many politicians have made campaigns using the slogan: “The only good criminal is the one that is dead…”
Questions that should be answered or solved in the debate:
· What are the conditions like in prisons in your country? Food? Medical care? Overcrowding? Security? · Is there any way that your country could make the prison conditions better without spending a lot of money or making them luxurious? · What are the worst problems inmates have to face while they live in prison in your country? · Are there any legal guarantees for the basic needs of prisoners in your country? · Are prisoners safe from torture in your country?
Bibliography
http://www.migrantesenlinea.org/enlinea.php?c=2088 http://news.yahoo.com/fc/US/Prisons http://www.unafei.or.jp/english/pdf/PDF_rms/no57/57-28.pdf http://allafrica.com/stories/200807300693.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64109-2005Mar1.html http://clearinghouse.wustl.edu/results.php?ct=PC http://www.hrw.org/advocacy/prisons/americas2.htm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/11/global18514.htm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/10/global18497.htm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/03/10/philip18248.htm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/04/07/global18556.htm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/05/08/jordan18759.htm http://hrw.org/english/docs/2008/06/12/ethiop19029.htm http://www.phrmg.org/monitor1997/may97-7.htm http://pricetheory.uchicago.edu/levitt/Papers/KatzLevittShustrovich2003.pdf http://www.referenceworld.com/sage/Prisons/index_C32377C39B534A3D95BC5B0E19974260.htm |
