|
A prison is a place in which people are confined and deprived of a range of liberties. Prisons conventionally are institutions authorised by governments and forming part of a country's
criminal justice system, or as facilities for holding prisoners of war. A prison system is the organisational
arrangement of the provision and operation of prisons.
There are a variety of other names for prisons, such as a prison-house, penitentiary or jail (in
British English, sometimes spelled gaol). There are, too,
many colloquial terms for prisons - such as clink, hoosegow,
lockup, lockdown and slammer - and imprisonment - doing time, bird,
porridge.
Prisons in the Criminal Justice System
In the domain of criminal justice, prisons are used to incarcerate convicted criminals, but also to house those charged with or likely to be charged with offences. Custodial sentences are sanctions authorised by law for a range of offences. A court may order
the incarceration of an individual found guilty of such offences. Individuals may also be committed to prison by a court
before a trial, verdict or sentence, generally because the court determines that there is a risk to society or a risk of absconding prior to a trial. The nature of prisons and of prison systems varies
from country to country. Common though by no means universal attributes are segregation by sex, and by category of risk.
The availability of incarceration as a sanction is designed to mitigate against the likelihood of individuals committing
offences: thus prisons are in part about the punishment of individuals who transgress statutory boundaries. Prisons also can
serve to protect by removing from society individuals likely to pose a risk to others. Prisons also can have a rehabilitative
role in seeking to change the nature of individuals so as to reduce the probability that they will reoffend upon release.
Crime and punishment is a wide, very controversial and deeply politicised area, and so too are discussions of prisons, prison
systems, the concepts and practices of imprisonment; and the sanction of custody set against other non-custodial sanctions and
against the capital sanction, a death sentence. Some of these issues
are discussed in the by country descriptions, below.
Military Prisons
Prisons form part of military systems, and are used variously to house prisoners of war, enemy combatants, and those whose freedom is deemed a risk by military authorities. The Geneva Convention provides an international protocol defining minimum
requirements and safeguards for prisoners of war. Again, particularly after the US led invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq,
military prisons and prison systems are highly controversial.
Political Prisons
Certain countries maintain or have in the past had a system of political prisons; arguably the gulags associated with Stalinism are best known. The definition of
what is and is not a political crime and a political prison is, of course, highly controversial, and critics can be found to
rebut the suggestion that any of the following are political prisons:
- Guantanamo Bay, established by US military authorities in Cuba in
order to avoid being subject to US law, to house so called illegal combatants - alleged Taliban and al-Qaeda personnel captured in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere. More recently,
abuse of detainees by US personnel at prisons in Iraq have cast doubts on the role of
prisons in US operations.
World Prison Populations
Over nine million people are imprisoned worldwide.
By country, the United States prison
population is the world's largest in absolute terms, at more than 2 million. It is second largest in relative numbers with
701 people per 100,000 incarcerated; only in Rwanda, where as of 2002, over 100,000 people were held on suspicion of participation in the 1994 genocide, is the relative figure larger.
Both Russia and China also had prison
populations of 1 million or more in 2002. No data is available for North
Korea [1] , [2]
Prisons in the United States
The large prison population in the US is thought to result primarily from high crime rates, long sentences, and a rigidly
fought "War on Drugs". Some observers have gone so far as to accuse the
United States of deliberately developing the legal system and the prison industry as a means of
social control beyond that normally associated with criminal
justice.
In recent years, there has been much debate in the US over the privatization of prisons. The argument for privatization stresses cost reduction, whereas the arguments
against it focus on standards of care, and the question of whether a market
economy for prisons might not also lead to a market demand for prisoners (that is, a strong lobby for ever-tougher sentencing
to satisfy the need for cheap labor). While privatized
prisons have only a short history, inmates in state- and federal-run prisons also undertake active employment in prison for low
pay.
Observers generally regard prison conditions in the United States as problematic, with prisoner violence and rape wide-spread, and medical care for inmates inadequate. An August 2003 Harper's article by Wil S. Hylton estimated that "somewhere
between 20 and 40 percent of American prisoners are, at this very moment, infected with hepatitis C". Prisons may outsource medical care to private
companies such as Correctional Medical Services, which, according to Hylton's research, try to minimize the
amount of care given to prisoners in order to maximize profits.
Gang violence has recently become a major problem, since many gang members retain their
affiliations when incarcerated for various crimes.
Many facets of prison society have made their way into mainstream culture, such as the practice of secretly brewing pruno, the custom of dominant prisoners retaining personal bitches, and the dangers of "dropping the soap". These representations of prison life, however inaccurate, are
frequently referenced in popular culture.
Private companies which provide services to prisons combine in the American Correctional Association. Their lobbying arm, ALEC, advocates legislation
favorable to the industry.
See also: Premier Custodial Group,
Wackenhut Corrections Corporation (WCC)
Prisons in the United Kingdom
For information on prisons and related subjects in the United
Kingdom, see articles on Her Majesty's
Prison Service, on the United
Kingdom prison population and the List
of United Kingdom prisons.
See also
Further reading
- Ted Conover, Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, Knopf, 2001, trade paperback, 352 pages, ISBN 0375726624
- Mark L. Taylor, The Executed God: The Way of the Cross in Lockdown America, Augsburg Fortress Publishers, Publishing
House of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, 2001, ISBN 0800632834.
- Wil S. Hylton: Sick on the Inside. Correctional HMOs and the coming prison
plague.
Harper's Magazine, August 2003.
External links
|