Latest news with #MandelaRules
Newsroom
15 hours ago
- Newsroom
Innocent until proven guilty often means 22 hours locked in a cell
Comment: Innocent until proven guilty is a fundamental premise of our justice system – but what does it mean? The Prison Inspectorate's just released report on Mount Eden Corrections Facility answers this question because it's where most of our remand prisoners reside. When the facility was inspected in October 2024, 70 percent of people were 'remand accused' prisoners – those yet to be determined guilty (or not) of any crime. A quarter were 'remand convicted'. Though found guilty of a crime, these people were yet to be sentenced and might not be given a prison sentence. Most were locked in their cells for 22 hours a day. The United Nations' Mandela Rules define solitary as 'the confinement of prisoners for 22 hours or more a day without meaningful human contact'. Fifteen consecutive days of solitary confinement is defined as 'prolonged', and prohibited under these rules. Spending such long hours in a cell each day severely limits a prisoner's ability to participate in activities such as training, education, and cultural activities – though at Mount Eden most programmes that ceased during Covid-19 have not been reinstated. This is despite the Government's commitment to provide remand prisoners with reintegration and rehabilitation support to 'turn their lives around'. Consequently, the prisoners were 'bored, stressed and frustrated' and had 'little to do except watch television'. This caused tension among prisoners, some of whom also experienced feelings of isolation and struggled with depression, anxiety, and poor mental health. When prisoners were unlocked, they understandably prioritised phoning their families and exercising, despite the exercise yards having limited equipment and 'no green spaces or views of grass or trees due to the design of the site'. This meant that case managers, education tutors, programme facilitators, and mental health staff found it difficult to access them during the two hours prisoners had outside of their cells. Cell hygiene was another problem in some units because prisoners had no cleaning products for several weeks, including a limited availability of toilet brushes, paper towels, and disinfectant. Disabled prisoners found cleaning their cells difficult, so 'rubbish remained in their cells leading to unclean living conditions'. Showering could also be a problem. The report records two prisoners unable to shower for weeks – one because staff would not provide the plastic he needed to cover his legs while showering, and the other 'could not stand up for long enough'. Some units had no disability cells, and there was a lack of mobility equipment. Two older prisoners told the inspectors: 'They received little in the way of care and support. […] they spent most of their time in their cells because every time they wanted to leave, staff had to find a wheelchair as there were none in the unit. […] this meant they were unable to leave their cells during unlock and were therefore unable to make telephone calls to their lawyers or family/whānau.' When the matter was raised with the facility's assistant health centre manager, the inspectors were shown six brand-new wheelchairs, still in their packaging, in the health storage room. It is not clear from the report how many prisoners were double-bunked and how many were in single cells and alone for 22 hours a day. Of those who shared a cell, some found this positive, but most 'found it stressful or exhausting'. A reason for this is likely the difficulty of contacting staff when problems arose because help was not guaranteed. One awful instance illustrates the point. A new prisoner tried to contact staff numerous times via his cell's intercom because his cellmate was threatening him. He asked prison staff to be moved, but instead they said they would deal with it in the morning, leaving the prisoner to be sexually assaulted and attacked several times overnight. To exacerbate matters, the prison is short of its full complement of custodial staff, with only 85 percent of positions filled. This means the prison is down 76.8 full-time equivalent custodial officers. Some 63 percent of staff have less than two years' experience at the prison. Staff shortages can encourage high lock-ups (restricting inmates to their cells) as a way to manage prisoners. As most staff will not have worked in a pre-Covid prison (when prisoners spent less time locked up), there is a danger that a culture of high lock-up becomes entrenched. This is important to confront because, as the inspectorate report so thoroughly documents, there are multiple adverse consequences when prisoners are locked in a cell 22 hours a day. Its apparent normalisation in a New Zealand prison is alarming. That we allow this as the practice for those presumed innocent is additionally heartbreaking.
Scoop
a day ago
- Scoop
Prison Inspection Report Released For Mount Eden Corrections Facility
The Office of the Inspectorate today (Wed 20 Aug) released its inspection report for Mount Eden Corrections Facility (MECF). MECF, in central Auckland, housed around 1,100 prisoners at the time of the inspection (October 2024), 95% of whom were on remand. It was a busy site with, on average, 600 prisoners arriving and leaving each month. Chief Inspector Janis Adair said the inspection found: 'Leadership at the site was generally stable and settled. Staff, including custodial and health staff, mostly had the skills and knowledge to do their jobs.' Many staff, however, had less than two years' experience working in a New Zealand prison, and many had English as a second language. Some of these staff struggled to understand cultural differences in New Zealand. The custodial team was also short-staffed and, partly due to this, most prisoners were subject to restrictive regimes, spending around 22 hours a day locked in their cells. MECF was providing opportunities for prisoners to engage with their families/whānau, including regular in-person visits. The inspection team found examples of positive practice, including one unit being run as an alcohol and drug recovery unit, providing a rehabilitation programme and other mental health and addiction focused sessions. The Property Office had a selection of good-quality clothes and shoes, donated by the charity Common (previously known as Koha Apparel), for people being released from prison who had nothing suitable to wear. Adair said the prison was 'a stark and austere environment with no green spaces, limited natural light and few outdoor areas. This makes it a challenging environment for both staff and prisoners.' Most prisoners and staff said they felt safe, but many prisoners did not feel safe in mainstream units. Most prisoners did not have jobs, and there were limited educational, cultural (such as tikanga courses or kapa haka) or constructive activities available. Prisoners told us they were bored, stressed and frustrated. The health team provided good levels of care, generally in a timely manner, although some prisoners waited unreasonable lengths of time to see a nurse or medical officer. We found some good practice in the management of prisoners with mental health issues, but prisoners in the Intervention and Support Unit (including some with serious mental illnesses), were effectively being denied association (that is, being able to mix with others). For some, this likely amounted to prolonged solitary confinement, as this is defined in the Mandela Rules. The report makes 31 over-arching findings. 'I expect the site to create an action plan to address the findings of this report ... I look forward to working with the site as I continue to monitor progress,' said Adair. The Inspectorate is a critical part of the independent oversight of the Corrections system and operates under the Corrections Act 2004 and the Corrections Regulations 2005. The Inspectorate, while part of Corrections, is operationally independent, which is necessary to ensure objectivity and integrity. The inspection process provides an ongoing insight into prisons and provides assurance that shortcomings are identified and addressed in a timely way, and that examples of good practice are acknowledged and shared across the prison network. Note:
Libya Observer
19-07-2025
- Politics
- Libya Observer
UN trains Libya's human rights council on detention monitoring
The United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) has held a workshop to strengthen the capacity of the country's National Council for Civil Liberties and Human Rights. The training, held at the mission's headquarters on Wednesday, brought together 25 participants from council branches across eastern and western Libya. According to a statement by UNSMIL, the workshop focused on strengthening the council's compliance with the 'Paris Principles' — international standards for national human rights institutions. Participants received in-depth training on detention monitoring, including the UN's Mandela Rules for the treatment of prisoners and the Bangkok Rules for female detainees. The session concluded with the development of a standardized checklist to be used during future prison visits, aimed at ensuring human rights protections inside detention facilities. The UNSMIL said the workshop is part of ongoing efforts to support Libyan institutions and foster a human rights-based approach to detention monitoring and governance. Tags: UNSMIL National Commission for Human Rights in Libya
New York Times
14-02-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
‘The Strike': When Collective Action Leads to Prison Reform
The word 'solidarity' — basically, agreement between and support for members of a group — is not hard to define. But it can be hard to wrap your mind around, in a world more oriented toward personal development and individual success than the common good. People who are willing to sacrifice their own freedoms or bodily security for someone else are celebrated in our culture, but also viewed with a bit of suspicion. What game are you really playing? What do you actually stand to gain? 'The Strike' (on the PBS app and PBS YouTube channel), directed by JoeBill Muñoz and Lucas Guilkey, is on its surface a documentary about the practice of solitary confinement in America. It centers on a series of hunger strikes organized by incarcerated men at California's Pelican Bay State Prison, beginning in 2011, in protest of conditions in highest-security prisons. This included protracted periods of isolation for individuals suspected of being in gangs, during which, inmates said, they were given inadequate food, denied meaningful contact with the outside world and held for periods that could last for decades. (Under the 'Mandela Rules,' the U.N.'s standard for solitary confinement is 15 days; more time is regarded as a form of torture.) The inmates also objected to a policy requiring them to 'debrief' — that is, to provide information about gangs to the authorities — in order to be released from solitary. Some of the formerly incarcerated in the film say they were identified as gang members simply because of the materials they read, or because of their race, without proof. And once you were in solitary, it was almost impossible to get out. 'The Strike' focuses on a number of former inmates who spent prolonged periods in solitary and participated in the 2011 hunger strikes. Two years later, with little to no change occurring, inmates called for another strike — and at the start, nearly 29,000 inmates refused food, across two-thirds of the 33 California prisons and four private out-of-state prisons holding California inmates. The 2013 strike lasted for two months, and by the end 100 prisoners were still refusing food. Among the remarkable stories told in 'The Strike' is how incarcerated people in isolation could organize a strike in the first place, as well as the men's' stories of life inside, and later outside, the walls of Pelican Bay. One technique involved emptying the water from the toilets in their cells, then shouting through the commode, where they could be heard by other inmates. But it's hard to ignore the other story here, one that illustrates both the meaning and power of solidarity. For the strike organizers, this was an obvious necessity almost from the start, in 2011. They were men, the documentary participants explain, who had been taught to hate one another all their lives — rivals from different neighborhoods, different ethnic groups, people with warring loyalties. Collective action can only work when the actors are united — a big reason the authorities attempted to divide the prisoners, promising unlimited food to whoever would break the strike. So, the leaders decided to sign a non-hostility pact — a 'show of force,' one man calls it, that caught the Department of Corrections off guard. The strike leaders discovered they were more alike than they'd ever realized, and that their strength would come from working together toward a common goal. Similarly, when the 2013 strikes were called, many of the inmates were not in the kind of prison that the original Pelican Bay organizers lived in. Yet they recognized the power of a broad action. Non-incarcerated people noticed and took part as well. 'The Strike' shows news footage of marching protesters demanding change. Change happens slowly. There's no central source of information about the number of U.S. prisoners held in solitary confinement, but it's far more than most of us realize. The striking prisoners had an effect, but they didn't change the entire system. Yet what 'The Strike' makes clear is that their collective action didn't just make an incremental step toward better conditions for prisoners. In the end, it changed the way they saw the world, too.
Express Tribune
29-01-2025
- Health
- Express Tribune
Gandapur launches prison reforms initiative
PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Khan Gandapur on Wednesday formally launched the newly established Prison Management Information System (PMIS) and E-Visit App, marking a significant step in the provincial government's prison reforms and inmate welfare initiatives. During a briefing, officials highlighted that the Prison Management Information System has fully digitized prison operations, interconnecting all 39 prisons in the province with each other and the judicial system. The system also enables virtual court hearings via video link, reducing the need for physical inmate transfers for court appearances. Similarly, the newly introduced E-Visit App facilitates online meetings between inmates and their families, eliminating the need for in-person visits and improving communication convenience. Regarding other reform initiatives, it was highlighted that Rs1.2 billion is being spent annually on inmate meals, and after seven years, the prison food menu has been revised to ensure a balanced diet. The prison regulations are being aligned with international standards i.e. Mandela Rules and Bangkok Rules. Furthermore, modern medical equipment and improved healthcare facilities are being provided for inmates. To promote physical and mental well-being, sports competitions have been introduced in prisons, and vocational training programs have been launched to equip inmates with various skills. Moreover, the prison industry has been revitalized and linked with the marketplace to provide financial benefits to prisoners. Officials also reported that 317 inmates from K-P, who were previously imprisoned in Punjab, have been transferred back to the province. Additionally, the provincial government is prioritizing the construction and development of prisons across the province. The completion of District Jail Swabi and Central Jail DI Khan will address the issue of overcrowding, while funds have been approved for a new prison in District Tank. Similarly, five regional prison offices have been made operational to improve prison management and Rs1.39 billion has been allocated for modern security equipment in prisons. Additionally, modern interview rooms have been built to ensure safe and convenient inmate-family meetings. Chief Minister commended the relevant officials for introducing the Prison Management Information System and implementing other reform initiatives. He stated that today's event marks a new chapter in the journey of prison reforms. He expressed gratitude to the International Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for their cooperation, stating that this partnership is a milestone in enhancing the prison system and inmate welfare. We aim to establish a modern system based on justice, transparency, and humanity, and we will utilize all available resources to achieve this goal, he said. Meanwhile, the Chief Minister also formally inaugurated the newly established Service Delivery Center-II at the Mohafiz Khana.
