NCJ Number
234254
Editor(s)
Kauko Aromaa,
Terhi Viljanen
Date Published
2010
Length
150 pages
Annotation
This publication describes the prisoner treatment workshop proceedings held at the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice in Salvador, Brazil, April 12-19, 2010.
Abstract
The issues addressed in the workshop fall within three main categories. The first concerns the best framework of international law and regulation which governs the treatment of prisoners and the practice of detention. The second concerns the way these international norms are implemented in reality, particularly in respect of the way prisons seek to rehabilitate offenders, promote good health, and meet the needs of the most vulnerable prisoners. The third is the contribution that wider society makes to the treatment of prisoners and the ways in which both prison systems and individual prisons relate to the broader community which they serve. The workshop findings suggest that developing better practices in prisons should be seen as a matter of urgency; it is not only a question of improving the functioning of penal institutions, but rather a question of broader reform of the criminal justice system which ensures that imprisonment is used as a last resort. The findings show that best practices can only be developed if overcrowding is addressed. This revised standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners proposes the introduction of concrete measures for controlling overcrowding, with an impartial agency determining the maximum number of detainees in each facility. The document provides a set of examples for what can be done to improve the practice of imprisonment, accepting that institutions that will continue to function until a better model is discovered. The solutions include: further research and work for member States as well as for the international community; consideration for a revised framework of norms, giving greater priority to meeting existing standards; and finding better ways of involving the wider community in the penitentiary task.