International Prison Research Articles

InterNational Prisoners' Family Conference

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Die leser in Breyten Breytenbach se tronkpoësie

Breyten Breytenbach is the most important prison writer in the Afrikaans literary tradition. This article briefly places his prison writing against the background of national and international prison writing before going on to investigate the way in which the reader is represented in his Afrikaans prison poetry. Research about prison writing points out the importance of communication with the outside world for the prisoner. To the prisoner who is also a creative writer, writing is one of the most important means of establishing contact with the outside world. Amongst the large number of poems in Breytenbach’s body of prison poetry which depict an attempt to communicate with the outside world, there are several in which the addressee is explicitly referred to as the reader. The focus of this investigation thus falls on that which reception aesthetics refer to as a”text-internal reader” or “explicit reader”, directly or indirectly addressed in the text. The investigation shows that the poet-narrator in Breytenbach’s prison poems is very conscious of the reader’s role in the concretization of the poem. Several poems from Breytenbach’s body of prison poetry, collected in the anthology Die ongedanste dans (“The undanced dance”, 2005), are analysed to show different facets of the poetnarrator’s relationship with the reader. Some of these analyses describe the poet-narrator’s circumspect approach to the reader and the explanations and instructions given to the reader. Other analyses focus on the poet-narrator’s attempts to manipulate references to time in order to create the illusion of simultaneity with the reader. Further analyses show that the prison writer’s emphasis on the anonymity and absence of the reader can be related to philosophical representations of signification while at the same time being grounded in the material circumstances of Breytenbach’s imprisonment. It is also shown that some of the poems depict the reader as being complicit in creating the circumstances in which the prison poet finds himself.

In comparative perspective: The effects of incarceration abroad on penal subjectivity among prisoners in Lithuania.

This article looks at how global flows of people and policies affect penal subjectivity among prisoners in Lithuania. Those who had previously been incarcerated abroad perceive their punishment in Lithuania’s reforming penal system in comparative terms. We find that international prison experience may either diminish or increase the sense of the severity of the current punishment. Respondents often felt more comfortable in a familiar culture of punishment in Lithuania that emphasizes autonomy and communality. Moreover, internationalized prisoners perceive prison reform emulating West European models as a threat to this culture and are able to articulate comparative critiques of this reform and contest its effects.

Міжнародний тюремний конгрес 1895 р.: основні ідеї та рішення

Міжнародний тюремний конгрес 1895 р.: основні ідеї та рішення

ІІІ міжнародний тюремний конгрес 1885 р

ІІІ міжнародний тюремний конгрес 1885 р

Logique d’exception et logique sécuritaire en droit international de la détention

Nombre d’études empiriques ont montré la manière dont la prison et les droits humains qui s’y appliquent sont régis par une logique sécuritaire. La présente contribution propose d’analyser le droit pour savoir si cette logique sécuritaire est présente au moment de la rédaction (ou de l’interprétation) de la norme légale. Se concentrant sur le droit international de la détention, appréhendé comme droit émetteur des normes de protection des droits des personnes privées de liberté, l’auteur montre que ce corpus juridique oscille entre une volonté de protection et une logique d’exception comprenant la logique sécuritaire. Entre exceptions qui annihilent le droit et application exceptionnelle de ce dernier, le droit international de la détention semble préfigurer la pratique en détention.

Foreign Prisoners in Europe: An Analysis of the 2012 Council of Europe Recommendation and Its Implications for International Penal Policy

The issue of migration is attracting significant media and political attention in Europe. Migration has been one of the causes of the rapid rise in the number and proportion of foreigners in national prisons. In response to this problem, the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers in 2012 adopted a recommendation concerning the treatment of foreign prisoners. This article analyses the penological and human rights implications of this recommendation in relation to its objectives to reduce the number of foreigners in custody, improve the regime experienced by foreign offenders and enhance the prospects for their successful reintegration. While the 2012 Recommendation makes important contributions to regional penal policy, it also contains notable gaps and limitations. The paper discusses the significance of omissions in relation to the (potential) role of consular representatives, dealing with nationals detained abroad and the use of inter-state transfers. Despite these criticisms and political resistance to some proposals in this field, there appears to be wide spread support for the Recommendation at a practitioner level. It may also have significance beyond domestic policy. There is a new and growing sub-category of foreign prisoner in Europe: the international prisoners convicted by international criminal courts that are serving their sentences in the prison systems of cooperating States. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potential influence regional penal policy can have on the implementation of international custodial sanctions.

Relative Income and Subjective Wellbeing: Intra-National and Inter-National Comparisons by Settlement and Country Type

We extend the Easterlin Paradox (EP) literature in two key respects, testing whether inter-national as well as intra-national income comparisons matter for subjective wellbeing, and testing whether these effects differ by settlement-type as well as by country-type. We confirm the intra-national EP predictions (that subjective wellbeing is left unchanged by an equi-proportionate rise in all intra-country incomes) across four developed country settlement types ranging from rural areas to large cities. The EP result also holds for rural areas in transitional countries but not for larger settlement sizes in those countries. For all country-settlement types, we confirm the importance also of inter-national income comparisons in determining people’s subjective wellbeing. Again, however, the effect is less prominent in larger transitional country cities. We also show that once we control for personal characteristics and income-related factors, we cannot reject the presence of a spatial equilibrium in life satisfaction. Our results indicate that each individual government that wishes to raise the life satisfaction of its residents still needs to boost those residents’ incomes in order to raise their subjective wellbeing. However, at least amongst developed countries, this practice results in an international Prisoners Dilemma in which mean life satisfaction stays stable despite rising global incomes.

Rehabilitation and Early Release of Perpetrators of International Crimes: A Case Study of the ICTY and ICTR

While cited as one of the goals of international sentencing and used as a factor for deciding on early release, rehabilitation of perpetrators of international crimes has thus far been neglected by academia and practitioners. This article presents an analysis of all ICTY and ICTR early release decisions handed down until July 2013, indicating how the tribunals have conceptualised rehabilitation of these ‘enemies of mankind’. After observing that the success rate of rehabilitating international prisoners is very high, we suggest that this may be attributable to (i) a lack of the Presidents’ critical evaluation of the materials upon which he bases his conclusions regarding prisoners’ rehabilitation and (ii) the fact that perpetrators of international crimes are a ‘different kind of perpetrator’. We offer suggestions to re-conceptualise rehabilitation in the context of international crimes and to adjust the enforcement system of international sentences in order to better promote rehabilitation.

Monitoring systems and national surveys on prison health in France and abroad.

The implementation of a national monitoring system of prisoners' health is under consideration in France. As information available on this topic is quite scarce, particularly in Europe, a study was performed to identify and describe various prison health monitoring approaches implemented worldwide. Data were collected for 15 countries in Oceania, North America and western and northern Europe via official state websites, bibliographical searches and interviews with international prison health representatives. The means and methods implemented to monitor prisoners' health in the studied countries are heterogeneous. Although all countries systematically record mortality data, only four have a monitoring system that covers a wide array of health data: Canada and Belgium routinely collect health data using a systematic, standardized and computerized approach, while the USA and Australia have developed regular repeated nationwide surveys. Some countries have set up monitoring systems restricted to specific health problems, such as infectious diseases (e.g. the UK, Switzerland and Canada) and mental health (e.g. New Zealand and the Netherlands). In other countries, including France, prisoners' health monitoring systems are limited to occasional epidemiological studies covering specific topics, for example, psychiatric disorders, addiction or infectious diseases. However, their one-off nature prevents regular assessment of health prevalence and trends. This study highlights the diversity of approaches and methods developed to monitor prison health in high-income countries. Analysis of these different situations provides an insight into the feasibility of and requirements for the development of an efficient prison health surveillance system.

HIV/AIDS in Lebanese prisons: challenges and proposed actions.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the extent of human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) crisis in Lebanese prisons, propose functional reforms for Roumieh prisons (the country's largest male top-security prison), and outline the main challenges to HIV/AIDS prevention, intervention, and treatment. All recommendations were based on previous successful stories, international prison standards as well as cultural considerations. This paper argues that prevention and interventions starts within the prison community including inmates, guards, and other prison and provision of appropriate health care, education, and prison infrastructure. These strategies are not only important in limiting prevention and transmission of HIV/AIDS, but also contribute in optimizing quality of life within the prison system. This paper is the first of its kind to discuss the prison situation in Lebanese prisons in terms of public health promotion and reforms.

A Blind Eye to Industry-Level Corruption? The Risk of Favouring Domestic Industries in the EU ETS

We investigate the risk of favouring domestic industries in the current European Union Emission Trading System (EU ETS). As the EU forms a weak federal structure compared to the US, there is a risk that single countries may free ride on the others by choosing to take a blind eye to industry-level corruption when tempted to favour their own industries. In other words, the optimal level of national cheating may not take into account the external cost it imposes upon other countries and the risk of wide-scale cheating and the possibility of an EU ETS collapse. Such national incentives to cheat correspond to a well-known transnational externality problem from international environmental problems and multiplayer prisoners' dilemma games. Thus, there is a strong need for systematic empirical analysis of whether cheating actually occurs in the EU ETS as predicted by theory.

Life after Conviction at International Criminal Tribunals: An Empirical Overview

As of July 2013, the ICTY, ICTR and SCSL have together convicted and sentenced over 120 perpetrators of international crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, respectively. Only 13% of these convicts serve life imprisonment. The vast majority has been sentenced to determinate sentences. According to the tribunals' Statutes convicted persons serve their sentences in a country designated by a tribunal. The enforcement of sentences, including any commutation of sentences, is governed by the laws of the countries of imprisonment. 'International prisoners' have been scattered around Europe and Africa and almost half of the convicts have already been (early) released. So far not much has been written about conditions under which international prisoners serve their sentences; factors that justify their (early) release; and what they do after their release. In this article we provide an initial overview of this empirical reality of the postconviction stage at the international criminal tribunals. Since the ICC has adopted a largely similar approach to sentence enforcement, the findings might serve as a starting point for discussion and possible re-assessment of future enforcement of international sentences. © The Author (2014). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

The international congress as scientific and diplomatic technology: global intellectual exchange in the International Prison Congress, 1860–90

AbstractIn the 1870s, the American prison reformer E. C. Wines attempted to bring together representatives from every country and colony in the world to discuss the administration and reform of the prison, under the auspices of the International Prison Congress. This article tackles the challenge by exploring how the international congress operated as both a social scientific technology and a diplomatic forum that emerged from this short-lived world of amateur social science and diplomacy. It argues that the exigencies of the international congress as a social scientific space forced it to take on diplomatic and political functions that both imprinted a logic of comparability onto the burgeoning international diplomatic system and also caused the eventual exclusion of non-European polities from the congresses. It engages with recent scholarship in history of science specifically to understand the international congress as a technology that mediated intellectual exchange and scientific communication. By examining the challenges posed by the inclusion of non-Western polities in such communication, it attempts to reveal the multiple global histories of the social sciences in the late nineteenth century.

Life after Conviction at International Criminal Tribunals -- Empirical Overview

As of July 2013 the ICTY, ICTR and SCSL have together convicted and sentenced over 120 perpetrators of international crimes committed during the conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and Sierra Leone, respectively. Only 13% of the convicts serve life imprisonment. The vast majority has been sentenced to determinate sentences. According to the tribunals’ Statutes convicted persons serve their sentences in a country designated by a tribunal. The enforcement of sentences, including any commutation of sentences, is governed by the laws of the countries of imprisonment. 'International prisoners' have been scattered around Europe and Africa and almost half of the convicts have already been (early) released. It is largely unknown under what conditions international prisoners serve their sentences, what factors justify their (early) release and what they do after their release. In this article we provide a detailed overview of this empirical reality of the post-conviction stage at the international criminal tribunals.

Health care in small prisons: incorporating high-quality standards.

In the past, health management in Geneva's six post-trial prisons had been variable and inconsistent. In 2008, the unit of penitentiary medicine of the Geneva University Hospitals was mandated to re-organize and provide health care at all six prison facilities. The specific aim of this paper is to outline the example as a practical solution to some of the common challenges in unifying the structure and process of health services across multiple small facilities, while meeting European prison health and local quality standards. Geneva's post-trial prisons are small and close to one another in geographical proximity - ideal conditions for the construction of a health mobile team (HMT). This multidisciplinary mobile team operated like a community ambulatory care model; it was progressively launched in all prison facilities in Geneva. The authors incorporated an implementation strategy where health providers partnered with prison and community stakeholders in the health delivery model's development and adaption process. The model's strategic initiatives are described along the following areas, in light of other international prison health activity and prior care models: access to a health care professional, equivalence of care, patient consent, confidentiality, humanitarian interventions, and professional competence and independence. From the perspective of the HMT members, the authors provide the "lessons learned" through this experience, especially to providers who are working on prison health services reform and coordination improvement. The paper particularly stresses the importance of partnering with community health stakeholders and prison staff, a key component to the approach.

Problems of International Prisoner Transfer

Problems of International Prisoner Transfer

Långsiktiga prognoser av platsbehovet på fängelser

The article discusses whether it is possible to make reliable predictions of prison populations five to ten years in advance. This period corresponds approximately to the planning period that the Swedish Prison and Probation Service considers necessary for building new prisons. After a brief description of forecasting and its various methods, three quantitative forecasting methods are discussed: trend projection, extrapolation from causal models, and statistical modelling. Swedish and international prison population data (comprising years 1961 ta 2010) are used as illustrations. It is concluded that accurate long-term forecasts are unlikely, since prison population data tend to show strong random walk patterns.

Die leser in Breyten Breytenbach se tronkpoësie

Breyten Breytenbach is the most important prison writer in the Afrikaans literary tradition. This article briefly places his prison writing against the background of national and international prison writing before going on to investigate the way in which the reader is represented in his Afrikaans prison poetry. Research about prison writing points out the importance of communication with the outside world for the prisoner. To the prisoner who is also a creative writer, writing is one of the most important means of establishing contact with the outside world. Amongst the large number of poems in Breytenbach’s body of prison poetry which depict an attempt to communicate with the outside world, there are several in which the addressee is explicitly referred to as the reader. The focus of this investigation thus falls on that which reception aesthetics refer to as a”text-internal reader” or “explicit reader”, directly or indirectly addressed in the text. The investigation shows that the poet-narrator in Breytenbach’s prison poems is very conscious of the reader’s role in the concretization of the poem. Several poems from Breytenbach’s body of prison poetry, collected in the anthology Die ongedanste dans (“The undanced dance”, 2005), are analysed to show different facets of the poetnarrator’s relationship with the reader. Some of these analyses describe the poet-narrator’s circumspect approach to the reader and the explanations and instructions given to the reader. Other analyses focus on the poet-narrator’s attempts to manipulate references to time in order to create the illusion of simultaneity with the reader. Further analyses show that the prison writer’s emphasis on the anonymity and absence of the reader can be related to philosophical representations of signification while at the same time being grounded in the material circumstances of Breytenbach’s imprisonment. It is also shown that some of the poems depict the reader as being complicit in creating the circumstances in which the prison poet finds himself.

International Humanitarian Law and Prisoners of War

Although combatants and other persons taking a direct part in hostilities are military objectives and may be attacked, the moment such persons surrender or are rendered hors de combat, they become entitled to protection. That protection is provided for in Common Article 3 and the First and Third Geneva Conventions (GC) relating to the treatment of the ‘wounded, sick and shipwrecked’ and ‘prisoners of war’ (POW) respectively; supplemented (for international conflicts) by Additional Protocol I. These conventions are binding as treaty law, but the key provisions are in any event customary in nature. Humanitarian treatment of prisoners of war was not emphasized until the second half of the nineteenth century. The Hague Regulations did not prevent many of the hardships that prisoners suffered during World War I; they did provide an enlightened basis for regulation. Besides the failure to anticipate the problems that arose in World War I, the chief defect of the regulations were a lack of specificity and the absence of any enforcement procedures. After the First World War, a conference at Geneva adopted new, more elaborate rules. Like the prior rules, the new rules did not anticipate the new modes of warfare adopted in the Would War that followed their acceptance.