Prison Staff: Overworked and Underpaid?
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GLOBAL PRISON TRENDS GLOBAL PRISON TRENDS 2016 SPECIAL FOCUS Pull-out section Prison staff: overworked and underpaid? Penal Reform International | Global Prison Trends 2016 | 1 Global Prison Trends 2016 This publication may be freely Penal Reform International reviewed, abstracted, reproduced Email: [email protected] PRI would like to thank Rob Allen for and translated, in part or in whole, Twitter: @PenalReformInt authoring this report. This report also but not for sale or for use in draws on the expertise of contributors www.penalreform.org conjunction with commercial to our expert guest blog series purposes. Any changes to the text ISBN: 978-1-909521-54-4 (http://www.penalreform.org/blog/), of this publication must be approved in particular: Luciana Pol (Center for First published in May 2016. by Penal Reform International. Due Legal and Social Studies, Argentina), © Penal Reform International 2016 credit must be given to Penal Reform Laura Maiello and Stephen Carter International and to this publication. Graphic design by Alex Valy. (CGL Companies) and Bruno Min, Enquiries should be addressed to (www.alexvalydesign.co.uk) Fair Trials. [email protected]. Cover photo: A prison guard closes This document was produced with the main gate, Chichiri prison, Malawi. financial assistance from the UK Photo by Luca Sola and used with Government and from the Evan kind permission. (www.lucasola.com) Cornish Foundation. Its contents are the sole responsibility of Penal Reform International and can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the UK Government or the Evan Cornish Foundation. Penal Reform International We promote alternatives to prison We currently have programmes in (PRI) is an independent which support the rehabilitation of the Middle East and North Africa, non-governmental organisation offenders, and promote the right Sub-Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, that develops and promotes of detainees to fair and humane Central Asia and the South Caucasus, fair, effective and proportionate treatment. We campaign for the and work with partners in South Asia. responses to criminal justice prevention of torture and the abolition To receive our monthly e-newsletter, problems worldwide. of the death penalty, and we work to please sign up at ensure just and appropriate responses www.penalreform.org/keep-informed. to children and women who come into contact with the law. CONTENTS Contents Foreword 5 1. Introduction 6 2. The role of imprisonment 8 3. Trends in the use of imprisonment 10 Pre-trial detention 10 Sentenced prisoners 12 Drug-related offences 13 4. Prison populations 16 Women 16 Children and young persons 18 Elderly prisoners 19 Foreign national prisoners, minorities and Indigenous peoples 20 Health issues 22 5. Prison management 23 Tackling overcrowding 23 Privatisation and use of resources 25 Security issues and violence 26 Fragile and conflict-affected states 26 Radicalisation 27 Food in prisons 28 Corruption 29 Solitary confinement, isolation and segregation 31 Preparing prisoners for release 31 Independent monitoring and inspection 32 6. Role and use of technologies 33 7. Alternatives to prison 34 Conclusions and recommendations 36 CENTREFOLD Special focus 2016 (pull-out section) Prison staff: overworked and underpaid? International standards 2 Prisoner-staff ratios 2 Recruitment and retention 3 Training 4 Working conditions 4 Safety, security and health 5 Penal Reform International | Global Prison Trends 2016 | 3 FOREWORD “It is behind the walls of … places of detention that international commitments by Governments to respect … human rights are perhaps most regularly put to the test.” Vellore Central Prison, India. © Andrea Huber 2014 4 | Penal Reform International | Global Prison Trends 2016 FOREWORD Foreword The human rights of prisoners are violence becomes more difficult to in the first place. Achieving a topic that typically elicits limited prevent – exposing many prisoners to this goal will require more systemic public attention and even less public serious physical and sometimes sexual reforms to national criminal justice sympathy. But it is behind the walls assault. The situation has become so systems – including greater use of of prisons, police cells and other acute that the UN Special Rapporteur parole, non-custodial sentences and places of detention that international on torture has described conditions other alternatives to incarceration, commitments by Governments to in some prisons as amounting to reduced use of pre-trial detention, respect, protect and fulfil human rights inhuman and degrading treatment and sustained investment in education, are perhaps most regularly put to or even torture. A 2015 report by the rehabilitation and reintegration of the test. United Nations High Commissioner ex-prisoners into society. Special for Human Rights urged countries measures are also needed to reduce According to the United Nations Office to commit to a series of steps aimed imprisonment of women and children, on Drugs and Crime, at any one time at ending over-incarceration and and protect those for whom prison more than 10 million people around overcrowding, and guaranteeing is unavoidable. the world are being held in prison respect for the inherent dignity of and other places of detention – only The report before you presents an all detainees. about a third of them in connection important snapshot of the state of with violent crime. That includes an Improving conditions in prisons is detention globally and related trends. estimated one million children, as key to both improving outcomes It draws on a multitude of sources well as more than 700,000 women – for prisoners and creating safer from across government, UN agencies, a number that’s growing far more communities. In December 2015, civil society and academia to produce quickly than the general prison the United Nations General Assembly a compelling, nuanced analysis of population. Excessive use of pre-trial unanimously adopted the Nelson the factors fuelling incarceration, the detention combined with delays in Mandela Rules – a revised set of impact on the individuals concerned the judicial process means that more international minimum standards on and the measures needed in order than three million people are being the treatment of prisoners. The new to improve outcomes – for people in held on remand, awaiting trial – in standards have been strengthened conflict with the law, their families and many cases in connection with minor in several respects, including by the communities. It deserves to be widely theft-related charges. inclusion of an absolute prohibition read not just by policymakers in the on torture and ill-treatment of criminal justice sector but by anyone Inevitably, global numbers mask prisoners, much more specific with a commitment to human rights, dramatic differences at the national provisions on solitary confinement, justice and the rule of law. level, with steady declines in prison and a commitment to provide all populations in some countries offset Charles Radcliffe prisoners with the same standard of by steep increases in others, creating health care available in the community. Chief, Global Issues & Intergovernmental serious problems of overcrowding. Their adoption was accompanied by Affairs, United Nations Human Rights The number of prisoners now exceeds Office, New York. an acknowledgement by many States official prison capacity in 116 countries that much more needs to be done to – in 21 of these countries it is even close the gap between the standards between double and quadruple enshrined in the Mandela Rules and official capacity. the reality for those in custody in As a result, detainees are too often prisons around the world. crowded into small, insanitary cells, It is also important – from the denied access to adequate food perspective of both human rights and and water, as well as to recreation, sustainable development – to reduce education and rehabilitation. With the number of people going to prison staffing stretched thin, inter-prisoner Penal Reform International | Global Prison Trends 2016 | 5 INTRODUCTION PART ONE Sustainable development Introduction goals and criminal justice This second edition of Global Prison • insufficient measures to prevent The number of people behind Trends looks at some of the key crime, in particular youth crime; bars, whether on remand or developments in prison policy and • excessive use of pre-trial detention; serving sentences, has increased practice since the first edition was in most countries over the last • lack of access to legal advice and published.1 2015 has seen a number 20 years, placing an enormous assistance; of important milestones at the global financial burden on governments level including: • punitive criminal justice policies and and at great cost to the social inappropriate use of imprisonment; cohesion of societies. In many • The adoption by the United Nations countries, criminal justice systems • scarce use of alternatives to (UN) of the 2030 Agenda for are unfair and discriminatory. imprisonment; Sustainable Development, including Instead of protecting society a requirement for states to, ‘Promote • insufficient measures to promote from crime while safeguarding peaceful and inclusive societies for social reintegration; the rights of those accused or convicted, they can cause, drive sustainable development, provide • inadequate prison management and deepen poverty and hinder access to justice for all and build and infrastructure;