Public Concern Grows

Public confidence in the prison system is not helped by the inhumane conditions to which prisoners are exposed, as described in the accompanying box. Prisoners who have suffered unjust treatment while serving their sentences are hardly candidates for rehabilitation. Then, too, a number of human rights groups are concerned about the disproportionate numbers of members of minority groups who are found in prisons. They question whether this is a coincidence or the result of racial discrimination.

A 1998 Associated Press report drew attention to the plight of ex-prisoners of the Holmesburg Prison, in Pennsylvania, U.S.A., who sought compensation for having allegedly been used as human guinea pigs in chemical experiments while imprisoned. And what about the reintroduction of chain gangs in the United States? Amnesty International reports: “Work on the gang lasts for 10-12 hours often in hot sun, with very brief breaks for water, and an hour for lunch. . . . The only toilet facility available to chain gang inmates is a portable chamber pot behind a make-shift screen. Inmates remain chained together while using it. When the chamber pot is inaccessible, inmates are forced to squat down on the ground in public.” Of course, not all prisons operate that way. Nevertheless, inhumane treatment dehumanizes both the prisoners and those who mete it out.

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A Brief Look Behind Bars

OVERCROWDING: Prisons in Britain have an acute overcrowding problem, and no wonder! That land has the second highest per capita prison population in all of Western Europe, with 125 prisoners for every 100,000 of the population. In Brazil, São Paulo’s largest prison is built to hold 500 inmates. Instead, it houses 6,000. In Russia, cells that should hold 28 inmates are housing between 90 and 110. The problem is so severe that prisoners must sleep in shifts. In an Asian country, 13 or 14 prisoners have been crowded into a 30-square-foot [3 sq m] cell. Meanwhile, in Western Australia, officials have coped with lack of space by using shipping containers to house prisoners.

VIOLENCE: The German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reports that in German prisons brutal inmates kill and torture because of “the war of competing cliques for illegal business in alcohol and narcotics, sex, and usury.” Ethnic tensions often fan the flames of prison violence. “There are convicts from 72 nations,” notes Der Spiegel. “Friction and conflicts leading to violence are unavoidable.” In one South American jail, the officials said that on the average, 12 prisoners were killed every month. Inmates said that the number was twice as high, reported the Financial Times of London.

SEXUAL ABUSE: In the article “The Rape Crisis Behind Bars,” The New York Times states that a conservative estimate is that in the United States, “more than 290,000 males are sexually assaulted behind bars every year.” The report continues: “The catastrophic experience of sexual violence usually extends beyond a single incident, often becoming a daily assault.” One organization estimates that in U.S. prisons, some 60,000 unwanted sexual acts take place every day.

HEALTH AND HYGIENE: The spread of sexually transmitted diseases among the prison population is well documented. Tuberculosis among prisoners in Russia and some African countries attracts worldwide publicity, as does the neglect in the fields of medical treatment, hygiene, and nutrition in many prisons around the world.

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An overcrowded prison in São Paulo, Brazil

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AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills