Poor Conditions in Prison - Essay Example

PRISON CONDITIONS: Prison conditions Introduction Recently in a fire breakout at a Honduras prison killed approximately 360 people due to overcrowding. In September, 2012 news reports in Georgia showed a video clip of prison wardens verbally abusing, sodomizing and beating inmates in a prison. In October same year exchange of gun fire took place in a crowded prison between police commandos and prisoners, leaving 27 for death and 44 injured. Above tragedies have unique trajectories and causes. Although they show a major problem facing countries worldwide: making sure that inmates are handled safely and securely. There are approximately 10 million individuals in prison globally, in accordance to statistics. Many others are detainees in other facilities. The concerns regarding individuals in detention are in three classes: unsafe conditions in prison, including inadequate food, poor sanitation, and overcrowding, inadequate healthcare and inadequate drinking water (Time, 2012). Another concern is mishandling of prisoners by authority and lastly, insufficient legal immunity causing incarceration and disrespect to legal right while behind bars. From this discussion that will follow is on poor conditions in prisons and remedy to these conditions. Poor conditions in prison Prison overcrowding It is a major challenge in management of prison globally. In Ukraine, for example, overcrowding conditions in a detention facility forced inmates to sleep in turns in 2012. In Sri Lanka, prisons routinely house an estimate of thrice its capacity. It is believed that this overcrowding is a major cause of violent confrontation. And in Eritrea, overcrowding has led to individuals being held in other facilities like unventilated containers and or crowded basement with no ventilation. For several countries, overcrowded prisons are a prone to issues like inefficient and overwhelmed justice systems, corrupt and untrained law officials, underpaid and mismanaged staffing. For instance, several prisons in America are manned by military- departments that lack expertise in the running of these facilities. This leads to incompetence in these facilities, substandard procedures, and lack of implementation and not committing to staff development and training. In Serbia, 11 000 inmates were held in a facility that was meant for 6500 leading to poor sanitation. A report of prisoners’ abuse by guards in some areas was frequent. In Chad, prison conditions were criticized that they resorted to inhumane, cruelty, and punishment. Moreover, detention facilities underfed inmates. Guards were at times not paid and released prisoners offered compensation in exchange. The sharp and widespread problems as a result of overcrowding in prisons globally, often leads to serious problems. Such prisons are likely to have poor sanitation, violent, and difficult to manage. In Sudan, in spite of efforts put in by prison facilities, judicial capacity and limited sources led to overcrowded, harsh and poor detention conditions that led to deaths and illnesses. Inadequate water reportedly resulted to violence in Juba holding facilities and most detention centers contained uncovered spaces where inmates were chained to a fence, wall or tree. In Haiti, serious overcrowding made prisoners to sleep in turns and led to problems of sanitation and ventilation. These prisoners suffered illness because of malnutrition, inadequate hygiene, and inadequate health care and bad water. In Benin, poor sanitation, overcrowding and lack of adequate medical facilities and sanitation led to risks to health of prisoners. Even in states in Europe with enormous resources, overcrowding continue to pose threat. For instance, in Italy, 66, 529 prisoners were put in 206 facilities meant for 47, 048 people. The UNODC has termed overcrowding in prisons as an emergency that this state has to look into. Recently a decision was made by the Human rights court that overcrowding risked lives of inmates and therefore immediate changes should be made (BBC news, 2012) Mistreatment of Inmates The deliberate sexual, physical and psychological mistreatment of prisoners by prison staff is a pervasive and persistent problem of concern. Always, these abuses take place in military bases, detention facilities or in police stations. Pre- trial detainees at are at high risks of mistreatment as they are under control of authorities, who opt for ill-treatment forms as the quickest way to extract information from them (. Transparency on pre-trial detention actions, detainees tracking and regular monitoring are vital to stop mistreatment while in custody. Regular and immediate access to legal counsel and family are important as well. Political prisoners are specifically more prone to deliberate mistreatment. In some countries like Iran, trials always witness forced confessions that are employed in convicting conscious prisoners. In 2012, Iraq’s vice president were convicted and mistreated by security personnel to get forced confessions on the vice president. Likewise reports from Madagascar stated that the accusation on former president was due to physical violence and electric shock. Moreover, abusive authorities always degrade or intimidate prisoners as a way of exerting control or punishing political prisoners. In Korea, political prisoners are always subjected to psychological and physical mistreatment. In accordance to many NGO reports and defector accounts, detainees experience electric shock, severe beatings, public nakedness, and confinement in small cells. In Syria, there were many genuine cases of abuse by security forces and torturing of prisoners in the year 2012. Those who watch human rights made a report on thousands of activists and protestors who were abused in many ways. In other countries, mistreating of prisoners has been deeply rooted posing a big challenge to reformers of the prison conditions. Hence, for example, in Afghanistan a report was issued out on reliability and credibility of many prisoners ill treated and tortured in many facilities. In Iraq, international and domestic NGOs reported similar ways mistreatment and torture including beatings, suffocation, stress positions, fingernail removal, sexual assault, death threats and inadequate medical treatment. And in Pakistan a report was issued that police used force on prisoners through beatings, burning them with cigarettes, prolonged isolation, whipping their feet, denial of sleep, and hanging in awkward positions. In states where police cannot access capacity, resources or experience to prosecute or investigate criminal conduct, abusive psychological and physical acts are employed to extort confessions. For instance, in Cambodia, private organizations reported torture of 100 prisoners while in custody and said in the report that it was not right to torture a detainee before trial. As Burma improved on human rights, security staff reportedly went on to subject prisoners to uncouth techniques of interrogation. Insufficient legal process Prisoners are always denied their minimum legal process and legal protection in the phases of imprisonment or detention: pre trial, trial and post conviction stages while serving their sentences. A substantial number of states deny adequate and fair process to prisoners before trial. For instance, in America, many of the entire accused detainees are in jail with no conviction. In panama, inmates are regularly imprisoned before a pre trial hearing for even more than 1 year, and in many cases pre trial detention surpasses minimum sentence for crime alleged. In China, period of pre trial detention are always long and police always refute detainees’ access to their defense counsels. In addition, while China law requires that the family of the detainee to be notified within a day, people are often held without any notification fir long period more particular in politically sensitive zones. In Saudi Arabia, interior ministry, associate with many forced arrests, maintains wide powers to capture and detain individuals indefinitely with no judicial access or oversight to family or legal counsel. In some cases, authorities held individuals for weeks and even years and notably failed to advise them mainly on their rights that include their right to have an attorney. Authorities in Zimbabwe always refute prisoners prompt access to their attorneys and transfer detainees frequently with no disclosure of the new place to lawyers and families. In Uzbekistan, particular types of detainees, including the ones charged with extremism or religious charges or political prisoners were always refuted visitation. Worldwide, prisoners experience a variety of due process challenges during trial. In Cuba, for example, in spite of the law presuming defendants to be not guilty till proven so, authorities always put the burden on detainees to prove their innocence rather than on prosecutor to prove defendants guilty. Trials that are politically catalyzed are always held in secrecy, citing exclusions to right to public hearing or extraordinary situations. Criteria for accepting evidence are discriminatory and arbitrary. Prosecutors regularly introduce unreliable or irrelevant evidence to testify or prove intent about revolutionary credentials. Most detainees, particularly political criminals, report their lawyers of unable to access their documents and files due to administrative and bureaucratic obstacles. In Vietnam, courts are controlled by CPV at al ranks and in most cases it decides verdict. Inefficiency, political influence and endemic corruption distort the prison sentence and judicial system. The party’s weight is specifically visible in high profile cases. In Iran, a range of human rights groups frequently denounce trials that deride international standards of justice. Once convicted, most detainees are limited to access of counsel who is in a position to monitor them and champion their rights. For instance, in Belarus human rights states that those who are non members of bars associations controlled by the state do not have access to detainees and prisoners, and cannot advise them with legal matters. In Qatar, detainees and prisoners generally accessed visitors although prison staff limits access to legal counsel and family at security prison. In most other states, detainees are denied accessing their legal counsels throughout the imprisonment period. My position on this paper is that inmates all over the world are ill treated and exposed to poor conditions irrespective of their gender. Both the males and females experience a range of mistreatment including sexual violence, torture, inadequate health treatment, less food and psychological mistreatment. The law being their sole advocate turns out to be propagator of this mistreatment. The police takes control of prison facilities on behalf of the government and therefore, should ensure that basic rights for detainees is respected. Unfortunately, when an individual has been caught he or she is thrown behind bars without any trial. It is not fair for any individual to be put behind bars before a legal trial to find him or guilty of an alleged crime. From paper, it can be seen that prisoners all over the globe undergo poor conditions behind bars. Therefore, resolutions to these conditions are necessary for justice to prevail and for conditions in jail to improve. Next, i will discuss on steps taken by states to correct on these poor conditions. Resolutions Most international organization and states are striving to improve their legal responsibilities and work to leave up to international standards as mentioned below. Many countries have resolved issues relating to poor conditions in their prisons inclusive of overcrowding. For instance, new rule was passed in Benin with an objective of decreasing pre trial detention, fasten judicial system, protect the rights of inmates and decrease prison congestion. In 2012, observers in a Cotonou court expected the state to ease congestion as 29 cases were involved. In Cameroun, a modernized assessment of prisons was launched by the government which caused a renovation of many prisons, 27 wells construction and purchase of vehicles for movement purposes. In Mexico, the government built two facilities of high standards in Guanajuato and Sonora to address the issue of overcrowding. The facilities will ultimately each hold maximum-security prisoners. Moreover, Haiti government sponsored erection of new facilities in the country. Governments should take necessary steps to avoid physical abuse of prisoners to respond to problems in prisons. These governments should ensure improved training of staff to enlighten them on how to handle prisoners and to avoid abusing them. For instance, in Mongolia the state ensured that video machines were installed at different points in the facilities to see that detainees were not mistreated and abused at the time of pre trials and other activities. States should ensure that the rights of inmates are respected. Inmates should also access their families and attorneys. They should be allowed to worship and observe their religious practices. For example, in Lebanon prisoners are free to observe their religious practices and visit at some frequency depending on the extent of crime committed by the inmate. Moreover, countries have trained chaplains to teach inmates on life skills and provide spiritual interventions. Lastly, countries should give each prisoner time and resources to prove his or innocence without censorship. Prisoners should be allowed to access their attorneys and time to document evidence in courts. Prisoners must live a good life like any other citizen of the state he or she is a captive. This is because only the freedom of movement has been taken away and not all rights. Conclusion Form this paper, it can be noted that the degree of problems in detention facilities are expansive. They vary from intentional to calculated forms of mistreatment by the governments. They are evidenced in developing and developed countries. But the nature of mistreatment is specific for each country. For this reason, I recommend that reports on any form of mistreatment by human rights organization to be acted upon. All countries worldwide should fix hidden cameras to monitor how inmates are treated in prisons and during their pre trial sessions. All prisoners should also be enlightened of his or her right while in prison. Lastly, all mistreatment from authorities should not go unpunished. References TIME, October 2, 2012, http://world.time.com/2012/10/02/inside-the-prison-that-beat-a-president-how-georgias-saakashvi-lost-His-election BBC News, July 27, 2012, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-19003776 UNODC, http://www.unodc.org/documents/justice-and-prison-reform/EGM-Uploads/ITALY-GOV-20-En.pdf Americas Quarterly, Prisons: In Jail, But Not Sentenced: http://www.americasquarterly.org/abornprisons United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan, 2013. Treatment of Conflict-Related Detainees in Afghan Custody: One Year On. Read More