The institution of the modern prison is an invention of the early 19th century. As such, it was inspired by the ideas of the enlightenment and religious reform movements and was generally an attempt at alleviating the plight of prisoners, helping them reform for a life without crime, and integrating them into the emerging world of industrial societies. The prison turned out to be one of the most successful institutions ever and is certainly the most widely adopted criminal justice institution. Its diffusion across the globe was unprecedented in terms of its velocity and the diversity of contexts in which it took hold despite great cultural, political, and economic differences, and a mounting lack of evidence that it, in fact, could achieve its objectives of reforming prisoners or deterring future crimes. It was seen as a promising solution to problems of crime and punishment at the beginning of the Industrial Era and as a penal technology that befitted the requirements of the emerging powerful nation and colonial states.
The prison is now an integral part of criminal justice institutions across the globe. However, countries differ widely in their use of imprisonment for different types of offenses, the number of individuals incarcerated, the social groups that are most affected, prison living conditions, and the provisions available for prisoners’ well-being and rehabilitation. The global landscape of imprisonment is shaped by these differences, and according to Jan van Dijk, the divisions between global regions reveal a justice deficit in conjunction with a North-South security divide that mainly affects developing countries in the southern hemisphere. In many countries in this global region, living conditions in prisons are life-threatening, often due to endemic violence. In this article, the major problems of contemporary global imprisonment are addressed, including overcrowding, human rights issues, and the situation of female prisoners.
Incarceration Rates
Present estimates of the world’s prison population are between 9 and 10 million, which amounts to a rate of at about 152 prisoners per 100,000 of the population globally. Between 1990 and 2013, the number of prisoners increased overall by 25%. This general trend between 1990 and 2013 affected member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development mainly in the northern hemisphere, with an increase of nearly 40%. This is mirrored in a number of countries in poorer regions, such as in Asia, a region that experienced a similar increase. While the prison population of the Americas increased by 50%, it did not change in Africa during this time. Half of the world’s prisoners are held in prisons in the United States, China, and Russia. The United States has the highest imprisonment rate with more than 700 per 100,000 people; this is more than 4 times the global average. With just 5% of the world’s population, the United States houses 25% of the global prison population. This mass incarceration is unique in the history of criminal justice, if concentration camps, labor camps, and other types of detention are not included as part of criminal justice institutions.
When global regions are compared, the Americas have the highest imprisonment rates, with an average of 234 prisoners per 100,000 of the population. This is followed by Europe with 156 prisoners per 100,000. Africa has the lowest imprisonment rate of all global regions with an average of 109 prisoners per 100,000. Generally, wealthy and developed countries use imprisonment more frequently and have higher imprisonment rates than poorer countries due to the costs of imprisonment. However, significant differences exist within global regions. In Europe, for example, wealthy Scandinavian countries, with their widely acclaimed prison systems, have the lowest imprisonment rates. Postcommunist Eastern European countries have the highest rates in this region. In Africa, both Central and West Africa have the lowest imprisonment rates of the continent with, respectively, 64 and 60 prisoners per 100,000 of the population. In contrast, in the southern part of Africa, the rate is nearly 4 times as high with 230 prisoners per 100,000 of the population, due to extremely high numbers of prisoners in South Africa.
Prison Overcrowding
The increase of the world’s prison population has caused severe problems of overcrowding across the globe. In 60% of 191 of the world’s countries for which data are available, the prison system exceeds intended capacity. Some countries, such as Kenya and Haiti, incarcerate 3 times as many inmates as there are prison beds. Such overcrowding affects not only adult prisoners but also children and young people. It is most acute in African and Latin American countries. Post-conflict countries like Rwanda are afflicted, as are the Central American countries of Ecuador, Haiti, and El Salvador, which have high levels of gang and drug violence.
Overcrowding, however, is not simply a consequence of high crime rates. Often, it is the result of dysfunctional and understaffed criminal justice systems. Pretrial detainees often linger in prison longer than the actual sentence they would receive. In numerous countries, pretrial detainees account for more than half of the prison population, also causing the most serious overcrowding. African countries (e.g., Liberia, Mali, Benin) have the highest proportion of pretrial detention, followed by Latin American countries (e.g., Haiti, Bolivia, Paraguay). There is a global overuse of pretrial detention, which accounts for a considerable proportion of the increase in global imprisonment over the past decades.
International Prison Rules
Prisoners are a vulnerable population due to their powerlessness at the hands of state authorities. Because of this, prison conditions are often viewed as indicative of the human rights regime to which a country adheres. At the turn of the 20th century, for both Winston Churchill and the Russian writer Fjodor Dostojevsky, the conditions in prison epitomized what they called the civilization of a country. The international community and its organizations have developed rules and regulations for life in prisons, including vital and basic provisions such as space, food, hygiene and health care, and contact with family and society. The United Nations (UN) Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (SMRs) were initially adopted in 1955 and approved in 1957. Major developments in human rights and criminal justice practices led to revised SMRs, known as the Nelson Mandela Rules, which were adopted unanimously by the UN General Assembly in 2015. The Mandela Rules now include a set of Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-Custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the Bangkok Rules), which the UN General Assembly adopted in 2010. Seventy principles address the specific experiences and needs of women in custody, including their safety from sexual assault and violence, their physical and mental health, and care for children while in custody.
With its Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the UN developed a further instrument to regulate and monitor the treatment of any individual in detention and at the hands of criminal justice or other officials. The Convention was adopted by the UN in 1984 and came into effect in 1987. However, it took nearly another two decades until, in 2006, the UN followed the example of the European countries and the Council of Europe, which had adopted the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1987. This protocol is the essential mechanism to monitor compliance with the Convention. It requires that signatory countries agree to visits to any type of detention center in their responsibility on a regular basis. Independent international and national bodies select and visit places where people are deprived of their liberty and issue reports. A subcommittee of appointed international experts oversees this process.
Prison Conditions and Human Rights
Taken together, the SMRs and the Optional Protocol address basic needs of prisoners and monitor their human rights. The Country Reports issued by the U.S. State Department, as well as reports by Amnesty International, give the most comprehensive overview of prison conditions and compliance with human rights worldwide. These form the basis for an Index of Prison Conditions that ranks these conditions from meeting the SMRs to being life-threatening. Conditions are rated life- threatening if violence at the hands of officers and/or other inmates is rampant and has led to deaths in custody. Conditions pose equally lethal threats when infectious diseases (e.g., tuberculosis) can spread without sufficient health care or where sexual violence is frequent in HIV-infected prisons. Conditions are particularly detrimental in overcrowded prisons in developing countries in the southern hemisphere.
According to the Index of Prison Conditions, prison conditions are best in Europe and worst in Africa, where prisoners often are at high risk of life-threatening conditions while in prison. Asia and Oceania have better conditions than Latin America. Many countries across Africa and Latin America have life-threatening conditions, partially due to serious overcrowding and partially due to unsafe conditions, organized gang violence, and absence of health care. Prison conditions distinctly differ within global regions. While Western European countries have the best prison conditions that, on average, meet the SMRs, Eastern European countries have harsh conditions (even if these are not typically life-threatening). In Latin America, Caribbean countries have slightly better prison conditions than countries in South and Central America. Visits from family and friends seem to be more generously permitted in African and Latin American countries, however, partially because family members provide food and care. Prisons in Latin America are less regulated and often lack effective security and oversight. On one hand, these conditions grant more liberty to prisoners; on the other hand, they are responsible for gang violence and organized crime within the prisons.
Human rights for prisoners also differ widely across the globe. This concerns the compatibility of life imprisonment (without parole) with basic human rights and human dignity, the space available to prisoners, the use of solitary confinement, and their voting rights. In the majority of European countries (70%), prisoners have the right to vote in elections. Global regions with the lowest proportion of countries where prisoners can vote are Africa and the Americas with 25%. In Asia and Oceania, nearly half of the surveyed countries allow prisoners to vote. In Europe, where the European Court of Human Rights repeatedly decided against a blanket ban of voting rights for prisoners, a few Western European countries (e.g., the United Kingdom) and a higher proportion of Eastern European countries prohibit prisoners from voting. In the United States, only two states, Vermont and Maine, have no restrictions on prisoners’ voting rights.
Female Prisoners
Female prisoners constitute a vulnerable and particularly disadvantaged group. With 700,000 women and girls in prison as of 2015, this group constitutes between 2% and 15% of the prison population worldwide. The vulnerability and disadvantage of women prisoners result from their minority position within the prison system; experiences of abuse, violence, and victimization; special needs with regard to mental and physical health; and responsibilities as caregivers for children. A joint report by the World Health Organization and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2009 addressed the systematic gender inequity in prisons.
The proportion of imprisoned women and girls among the prison population is lowest in African countries (2.8%) and highest in Asian countries (4.9%), with a global average of about 5% of the prison population. Countries with an extremely high proportion of female prisoners are Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Bolivia with proportions above 15% of the prison population. Women and girls are the fastest growing group of prisoners worldwide. Between 2000 and 2015, the number of women and girls in prison increased by 50%, while the worldwide prison population increased by 20%.
There are relatively few prisons or facilities for women, and they are often housed in prisons far away from their families. As women tend to serve shorter sentences than men, they are unable to take advantage of drug rehabilitation and other education- or health-related programs. The majority of female prisoners have been victims of sexual abuse and domestic violence. Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and other health problems that need to be addressed. In many parts of the world, they are exposed to sexual assault by criminal justice personnel and by prisoners. Pregnancies and birth in prison, the well-being of infants and small children in prisons, and the care for children outside of prisons are also major issues for women in prison.
Imprisonment is an important global issue. Typically (but not exclusively) in poor and developing countries, conditions in prisons do not meet SMRs, which put prisoners’ lives and well-being at risk and amounts to severe violations of their human rights. High imprisonment rates affect the social and economic lives of families and communities and burden countries’ budgets across the globe. Reducing imprisonment and improving prison conditions is a major task for the international community.
References:
- Penal Reform International. (2018). Global prison trends 2018. Retrieved from https://www.penalreform.org/ resource/global-prison-trends-2018/
- Van Dijk, J. (2008). The world of crime. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- World Health Organization and United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2009). Women’s health in prison. Correcting gender inequity in prison health. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/documents/ hiv-aids/WHO_EURO_UNODC_2009_Womens_health_in_prison_correcting_gender_inequity-EN.pdf
Websites
- World Prison Brief. Retrieved from http://www .prisonstudies.org/