International Centre for Prison Studies

ICPS NEWS DIGEST

10
th
Edition July - August 2012

Welcome to the tenth edition of the ICPS News Digest, a selection of news items from
around the world on prison and the use of imprisonment. We aim in the Digest to cover all
regions and include new developments in policy and practice, as well as information from
official and intergovernmental bodies. The Digest is produced bi-monthly and this issue
covers the period from 1 July to 31 August 2012. Please click on the blue highlighted words
to access the news reports.

Please note that ICPS is not responsible for the accuracy of external content.

Prison populations

Prison overcrowding continues to cause problems in many countries. The Acting
Superintendent of Prisons in Antigua has said that urgent measures are needed to address
the growing population at the countrys already crowded prison, which was built to hold 150
prisoners but is currently holding 352. In the remand section 12 prisoners are held in a cell
that measures 12 x 9 feet, and with only three beds per cell many prisoners sleep on
blankets on the floor.

Irans chief prison official has said that Iran has about 220,000 prisoners, with some jails
housing as many as six times the number of prisoners they were designed to hold. Irans
prison population has increased by at least 35 percent over the past three years largely due
to a greater focus on prosecuting drug related crimes.

In Uganda 32,967 prisoners are being held in prisons with capacity for 14,493, leaving
limited resources severely stretched. The prison administration reported that whilst the
prisons are one of the highest producers of food in the country, they do not have enough
money to feed the prisoners.

Liberias Solicitor General has revealed that the overcrowding at South Beach Prison, where
1,015 prisoners are held in a facility built for 375, means that four prisoners have to stand in
a space intended for one meaning they must take it in turns to sleep. He also stated that
about 85 or 90 percent of the prisoners are unconvicted.

Colombias Justice Ministry has announced new measures to stop the problem of
overcrowding in the countrys prisons. The Justice Minister said home detention and the
transfer of prisoners from overcrowded prisons to others represented a first step towards
this goal.

In Western Australia 46 prisoners at Bandyup Womens Prison in Perth have to sleep on the
floor as the prisons population reached 300. The prison was originally designed to hold 180
but double bunking has increased its capacity to 260. The Corrective Services minister
insisted that his department was dealing with the problem.

In the US the California Corrections Department has admitted it is unlikely to reduce its
prison population to 137.5 percent of capacity by the June 2013 deadline set by the US
Supreme Court. Instead it will ask for the cap to be raised to 145 percent, arguing that it had
made great progress in improving the quality of healthcare which was the Courts main
concern when setting the cap. Also in the US, the prison population in Texas has fallen to its
lowest level since 2008. While experts say that a decrease in crime rates, changes in
demographics and an ageing state population have combined to mean fewer prisoners,
judges are also increasingly sentencing people to alternative treatment and rehabilitation
programmes that have proven more effective while also being cheaper than imprisonment.

In Sri Lanka it has been reported that over 15,000 people are in prison for failing to pay
fines, more than half of the total number of people entering prison in 2011. Failure to pay a
fine has become a major contributor to prison congestion in the country. To increase
capacity in the prison system almost all the major prisons are being relocated to the
suburbs.

Prison cells in the Netherlands do not meet the required European standard and there are
questions over the doubling of the number of female prisoners, according to a report by the
European Committee for the Prevention of Torture. While the total number of prisoners fell
from 20,000 to 15,000 between 2004 and 2010 the number of women prisoners doubled to
8.7 percent, the highest in Europe.

In Fiji statistics provided by the Corrections Service show that over half of the prison
population, 819 out of the 1,375 prisoners, are youths, defined as those aged between 21
and 35 years of age. An official said the majority of youths in the prison system were jailed
for marijuana related offences.

In Malaysia there were 9,757 foreigners serving sentences in the countrys prisons in the
first six months of this year, making up around 27 percent of the prison population.

Many countries are using national occasions as an opportunity to release prisoners and ease
overcrowding. Thailand released 25,000 prisoners to commemorate the recent birthdays of
the Queen and Crown Prince. 377 prisoners were released in Malawi to mark 48 years of
independence. The King of Morocco granted royal pardon to 562 people, including 371 who
were released on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr, an occasion which also saw the release of 130
prisoners in Iran. In India 750 prisoners held in Tihar Prison were granted remission on their
sentence of up to 45 days as part of the countrys 66
th
Independence Day celebrations.

Health

The Provincial Health Office in Aklan Province, the Philippines, will conduct a TB in Prison
Programme, which will identify prisoners who are showing signs and symptoms of TB. The
activity will involve the provision of health information and education, directly observed
treatment shortcourse (DOTS) orientation, identification of TB symptoms and consultation
to a total of 405 prisoners.

In Russia the number of complaints to doctors by prisoners in Moscow has increased
significantly and the mortality rate among them has dropped by 19 percent in the first half
of 2012 compared to the same period in 2011 according to a Moscow prosecutor.

The Kanombe Military Hospital in partnership with the Rwanda Correctional Service is
aiming to treat 3,400 prisoners with eye problems around the country over a period of 42
days. The treatment will include correcting all eye problems, including operations to treat
blindness and cataracts, and the provision of glasses for those who need them.

In Western Australia the State Governments much anticipated plan to hold intellectually
disabled people indefinitely in dedicated secure units rather than prisons because they are
unfit to stand trial for alleged crimes has been dealt a blow. The Mental Health Minister
scrapped two centres just a week after announcing the $18 million units for 20 people
would be built and opened by 2014. The Minister said she had been advised they would be
unlikely to get council approval and the Government was looking for alternative locations
for the units.

A study on The Mental Health of Prison Entrants in Australia 2010 found that the number of
prison entrants with a history of mental health problems is about two and a half times
higher than that of the general population. The study used data from the 2010 National
Prisoner Health Census which found that 31 percent of prison entrants surveyed said they
had been told by a medical professional that they had a mental health disorder. A separate
report found that in Queensland, Australia, nearly 90 percent of indigenous women and 73
percent of indigenous men in the states prisons have a diagnosed mental illness.

Rimutaka prison in New Zealand is set to open the countrys first dementia unit later this
year. The Corrections Department confirmed the high dependency unit will be created for
some of the 120 prisoners aged over 65 who struggle with daily tasks such as showering
themselves.

In the US around 60 percent of doctors working in Louisianas prisons have been disciplined
by the state medical board for issues ranging from paedophilia to substance abuse
compared to two percent of the states licensed medical doctors, according to data from the
Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners. The executive director of the Board said
doctors with serious issues are allowed to practice medicine only because were convinced
thats a perfectly safe thing to do.

During the first six months of 2012 the number of prisoners committing suicide in
Portuguese prisons quadrupled in comparison with the same period in 2011, from two to
eight, according to data from the General Prison Services Board. Since 2008 75 people have
died in prison in New Zealand, where the suicide rate is 11 times higher than in the general
population. The coroner investigated 37 of those deaths, recording 13 as suicide, a trend the
ombudsman called a serious concern in a 2011 report, recommending responsibility for
healthcare should be removed from Corrections.

Drugs

A report by the Australian National Council on Drugs (ANCD) found that in New South Wales
42 percent of male and 54 percent of female prisoners were reported to be using at least
one illicit drug regularly or almost daily in 2009, while some 92 percent of Queensland
prisoners being released from custody were found to have a history of illegal drug use. The
ANCD criticised state prison authorities for placing more emphasis on drug detection dogs
and urine testing than with running drug treatment programmes.

In Australian Capital Territory (ACT), the state government has announced a renewed push
to introduce a needle and syringe exchange programme in the Alexander Maconochie
Centre which would see prisoners given clean needles to safely inject drugs as the
government attempts to combat the spread of hepatitis C among prisoners. Drug
counselling and support will be offered alongside the needle exchange. The plan will make
ACT the first jurisdiction in Australia and the English speaking world to have a needle
exchange in a prison setting.

Officials from the US Embassy in Nassau, Bahamas, have donated 2,000 units of drug
testers, along with a Body Orifice Security Scanner Chair and two cellular telephone
detectors, to HM Prisons. The Prison Superintendent says the equipment will not only
further strengthen the prisons efforts to reduce the amount of drug contraband coming
into the facility but will also help to facilitate its drug treatment programmes as it will
enable the authorities to identify more quickly the prisoners who have drug addictions.

The New Zealand Corrections Minister has officially opened the expanded drug and alcohol
treatment unit at Hawkes Bay prison, as part of the Governments target of reducing
reoffending by 25 percent by 2017. A new intensive addiction programme for low security
segregated prisoners will see an extra 120 prisoners receive treatment each year at the
prison. Across the country 33,100 additional prisoners will receive new and expanded drug
and alcohol treatment in prisons and in the community, an increase of almost 500 percent.

Treatment of prisoners

A report issued by a group of Egyptian human rights organisations has revealed that
prisoners are subjected to inhumane tests following visits by their family members. The
report, which focused on Tora prison, stated that prisoners are forced to drink water with
soap, which causes severe vomiting and diarrhoea, so that the prison administration can
make sure their stomachs do not contain any prohibited items. The report also noted the
deplorable conditions in which prisoners live due to overcrowded cells, lack of proper
ventilation, shortage of medical supplies and absence of leisure breaks.

Prisoners in Queensland, Australia, claim they are being fed rotten fruit and vegetables and
meals that dont meet basic nutritional requirements, forcing them to spend their weekly
allowance on vitamins and tins of tuna instead of on toiletries or phone calls to their
families. The Department of Corrective Services strenuously denied the claims. In Western
Australia the state government has announced plans to halve the number of prisoners it
transports to funerals in order to meet budget cuts. It wants to save more than $500,000 by
allowing prisoners to virtually attend funerals streamed over the internet and by holding
memorial services in jail.

A court has ordered the French state of New Caledonia to pay compensation to 30 prisoners
for detaining them in inhumane conditions. The men were held at the Camp Est prison in
Noumea, which they claim was not only overcrowded but infested with rats and
cockroaches. They complained they were expected to use the toilets in full view of their
cellmates and that their sheets were only changed every two months. Sixty more prisoners
are now hoping to take up cases against the state.

A report released by the public defenders office in Georgia following the inspection of the
N8 prison in Gldani found that many prisoners had been awaiting transfer to other prisons
for a long time, and without being provided with a firm timetable for their transfer.
Prisoners are only allowed 15 20 minutes exercise per day, the prison shop lacks healthy
products such as fruit and vegetables, and prisoners are only allowed brief phone privileges
twice per month.

Over 100 prisoners went on hunger strike and five slashed their veins at a high security
prison in southern Russia over the controversial death of a fellow prisoner. Rights activists
insist that the prisoner, Sergei Lasko, was beaten to death by the officials at the prison in
Salavat, but according to the local Investigative Committee he died from a heart attack. In
Russias eastern Siberian province of Yakutia 19 prisoners attempted to commit suicide by
slashing their veins. A team of investigators subsequently visited the prison to investigate
the incident and to check for possible violations of the prisoners rights by prison
authorities.

A federal court judge says Canadas prison system is breaking the law by failing to deal with
prisoner grievances in a timely manner, saying the backlog is contributing to growing
tensions and violence within the system. The judge ordered a judicial review and that a
senior official with the Correctional Service of Canada should review the matter.

In Ireland new robust prisoner complaints procedures are to be introduced following the
publication of a report on the issue by the Inspector of Prisons. The new system will give
priority to complaints of most concern those alleging serious ill treatment, use of excessive
force, racial discrimination, intimidation or threats. Such complaints will be examined by
investigators from outside the prison service.

In the US state of New Hampshire four female prisoners are suing the Department of
Corrections for what they say is a disparity of opportunity compared to the male prisoners
in the state. The suit alleges that the Department is out of compliance with the 1987 federal
court order that required the state to provide female prisoners with services male prisoners
already receive, including vocational education, mental health treatment and housing
programmes.

An EU funded project has been launched in Lebanon which aims to improve the conditions
in womens prisons in order for them to meet international human rights standards by
developing the competence of prison authorities to uphold the human rights of women in
prison, enhancing the legal and social support to women prisoners to claim their rights and
report abuses, mobilising civil society stakeholders on gender equality and human rights
considerations, and promoting regulatory improvements by proposing changes in
legislation. Also in Lebanon, the water supply to the countrys biggest prison, Roumieh, has
increased by almost 50 percent after a project implemented by the International Committee
of the Red Cross was handed over to authorities. The project links the prisons water system
to a new well.

The Zambia Prisons Service is setting up a milling plane in Kabwe to fully add value to maize
and other crops produced by prisoners throughout the country each year. An official said
the development was aimed at increased sustainability in the provision of food to the
prisoners.

Prison violence

Canadas prison population has reached an all time high, with 15,097 prisoners now held in
federal prisons and with more prisoners sharing cells designed for one, a situation that has
raised tensions and led to growing violence. The correctional investigator reported that
assaults in the Prairie region have increased by 90 percent in the past five years, from 306 in
2007 to 583 in 2012, while the number of incidents involving use of force by staff rose by 95
percent over the same period.

Fights, bullying and sexual abuse are too prevalent in German prisons, according to a study
by the Criminological Research Institute of Lower Saxony. The report found that one in four
prisoners in German jails experienced an act of violence in the month before the study was
conducted. The number rose to half of the people held in facilities for young offenders.
Seven percent said they were subject to sexual abuse.

Twenty five people were killed and dozens wounded during a riot at Yare I prison in
Venezuela when two groups of prisoners waged a gunbattle inside the prison while
hundreds of relatives were visiting. In Uribana prison in Venezuela 581 people were taken
hostage by prisoners complaining about procedural delay, denial of benefits and ill
treatment.

A report released by the Ombudsman in New South Wales, Australia, said that prison
officers werent properly trained on appropriate ways to handle prisoners and were often
unaware of when to use batons. The report recommended that Corrective Services
investigate each use of force and replace faulty CCTV equipment within three months to
make prisons more accountable.

In Canada documents obtained under Access to Information showed that the use of tear
gas, pepper spray, guns and physical restraint is increasing in the countrys prisons to defuse
violence. The documents showed that incidents where use of force was applied against
federal prisoners have increased by 37 percent in the last five years, to 1,339 in 2011-12
from 975 in 2007/8. Use of tear gas has tripled over the same period, from 96 to 292 while
use of pepper spray has more than doubled to 400 from 186.

Developments in rehabilitation

In Singapore prisoners can learn new skills through innovative reintegration programmes
run by the Singapore Corporation of Rehabilitative Enterprises (SCORE). These include
cooking classes, training on basic computer literacy, design management and people
management skills. Last year more than 1,500 prisoners found jobs prior to release, a 35
percent increase from 2010.

Under a programme started in 2000 by the local cooperative, San Giacoma, in conjunction
with the prison on Elba Island, five prisoners still serving their sentences are helping to
manage a hotel on the island of Pianosa off western Italy. The prisoners have been given
contracts to work as barmen, cooks, cleaners, waiters and gift shop salesmen in the hotel.
The programme is open to prisoners who have served at least two thirds of their sentence
and have shown exemplary behaviour.

Since it was launched in 2010 more than 400 prisoners have enrolled in the I Change
programme in El Salvador. The programmes first stage offers opportunities in education,
health, religion, art and culture, sports and crafts to prisoners who have already served a
third of their sentence or are eligible for parole within the next six months. Prisoners who
complete the first stage are then allowed to leave the prison to work every day and return
at night, except on weekends when they can stay with family members.

At the Mission Creek Corrections Center for Women in Washington, US, prisoners are
helping to save the endangered Taylors checkerspot butterfly which they breed in a
greenhouse outside the prison. These efforts are part of the Sustainability in Prison Project
which works with prisons throughout Washington and treats the prisoners as collaborators
rather than labourers. They apply for the positions and get training, education and a small
wage. Together they have helped to conserve endangered butterflies, frogs, flowering
plants and moss.

Prisoners in Thailand are learning the skill of lapidary, cutting and polishing precious stones.
The training is part of a programme established by a jewellery company owned by a former
prisoner who approached Chanthaburi Central Prison when his company found it hard to
get workers with the necessary skills to work as lapidary craftsman. The company sends raw
gems to the prisoners for cutting, and the prisoners are paid a bonus when the jewellery is
sold. At Chon Buri Prison one hundred prisoners have been trained in underwater welding,
and so far 39 of them have developed skills sufficient for them to gain work after they are
released from prison.

Prisoners at Jaw Prison, Bahrain, have been creating scores of handicrafts from glass,
ceramic and wood, with intricate carvings and paintings. Prison officials plan to hold an
exhibition-cum-sale, 60 percent of the proceeds from which would go to the prisoners who
made them.

Prisoner work programmes in Taiwan designed to help prisoners transform their lives and to
prepare them for a fresh start have also generated big profits for the countrys prisons.
According to data compiled by the Agency of Corrections, sales of prison made products at
ten prisons across the country totalled over NT $320 million (US$10.64 million) in 2011.

As part of efforts to fulfil its promise of ensuring an adequate food supply in the country by
2015, the Nigerian Federal Government has announced plans to use 200,000 prisoners to
boost agricultural production across the country. The prisoners, who would constitute the
majority of the workforce, would earn salaries which would be paid to them at the end of
their prison term. It was hoped the programme would also give the prisoners the skills
needed to enable them to find employment on release.

New Zealand Post the countrys postal system - will help to fund a programme aimed at
improving the literacy skills of prisoners. The programme targets functionally illiterate
prisoners who are serving a short sentence or are on remand. It places a particular focus on
people whose illiteracy is a contributing factor in their offending for example driving
without a licence because they lack the skills to complete the written driving test. Around
half of the countrys prison population cannot read or write.

Prisoners in Shanghai, China, can now earn a college degree as the province opened the
countrys first prison campuses at four prisons. The programme will eventually be rolled out
to all 13 prisons in the province.

The Department of Education in the Philippines reported that 100 percent of prisoners who
took this years elementary equivalency test passed the exam, more than double the 48
percent pass rate in 2010. The success is attributed to the use of teachers serving sentences
to augment the prison systems limited teaching force for the Alternative Learning System
which brings basic literacy to the out of school sector.

The number of prisoners who received a score of over 900 out of 990 in the Test of English
for International Communication at the Uijeongbu Correctional Institution in South Korea
has doubled from last year. The scores are higher than most college students achieve.

A primary school in Western Australia has set up a programme with each of Perths major
prisons to allow imprisoned parents to earn points for certain work that can be redeemed at
the school to purchase uniforms, food or pay for excursions. The scheme allows the parents
to remain involved in their childs education and maintain the family bond.

A prison in the Mexican city of Merida is holding its own version of the Olympic Games,
giving 800 prisoners the chance to compete in 13 different sports. Authorities at the Yucatan
Rehabilitation Center said the goal of the sporting event is to facilitate the prisoners
eventual reinsertion into society.

Prisoners at the Santa Rita do Sapucal prison in Brazil can reduce their sentences by
pedalling a stationary bicycle connected to a power generator that charge batteries which
are taken to the city centre to power some of the street lights. The prisoners will receive
one day off their sentence for every 16 hours of pedalling they do.

More than 100 prisoners have married at a Mexican border prison in a collective ceremony
meant to give their families legal rights for visits and court proceedings. The Civil Registry
Office director, who carried out the ceremony, said the weddings were part of a
government strategy to help prisoners reintegrate back into society when they are released
from prison.

Sentencing and the law

Colombias Constitutional Court has approved the governments proposal to decriminalise
the possession of small amounts of cocaine and marijuana for personal use. Anyone caught
with less than 20 grams of marijuana or one gram of cocaine may receive physical or
psychological treatment depending on their state of consumption, but may not be
prosecuted or detained. The move is part of a growing trend in Latin America.

The Justice Ministry in the Czech Republic has proposed that prisoners should be eligible for
house arrest after serving half of their sentence, or one third in exceptional cases. The
measure is intended to solve the problem of overcrowded prisons and to save money.
Under the new legislation prison directors would also be authorised to release prisoners to
serve their time under house arrest.

Courts in Ireland are imposing more community based penalties rather than prison
sentences, with the number of community court orders made in 2011 increasing by 40
percent according to the annual report of the Probation and Welfare Service. The report
reveals the service dealt with 14,845 people in the community last year, with 8,135 new
cases being referred by the courts. The increase follows legislation introduced in October
2011 which meant that when judges are considering imposing a sentence of 12 months or
less they must first examine the appropriateness of community service.

The South African Correctional Services Minister has used ICPS date showing that the
country has the highest prison population rate in Africa to call for a debate on the use of
imprisonment. He said attention should be given to the better use of non-custodial
sentences for those accused of lesser crimes. He also noted that 46,000 out of the prison
population of 146,000 were awaiting trial. A limited poll of 49 magistrates in South Africa
has shown that 80 percent of respondents did not agree that all prisoners were dangerous
and needed to be locked up; about half did not support the use of longer prison sentences
to fight crime and 63 percent did not believe that putting people in prison stopped them
from committing crimes in future.

The Chief Justice in New South Wales, Australia, has called for the state government to
consider changing sentencing laws, saying that the notion that longer prison terms deter
crime is fiction. He said the impact of an individuals sentence on the likelihood that
someone else will commit a similar crime in future is one of the factors that judges have to
consider during sentencing, but that there was no persuasive evidence that it works.

Puerto Rican voters unexpectedly rejected a constitutional amendment that would have
limited some defendants right to bail. The Islands constitution contains an absolute right to
bail, and the proposed amendment would have let judges deny bail for those accused of
premeditated murder or killings committed during home robberies, sexual assaults or
kidnappings. Puerto Rico has, however, implemented a new penal code which establishes
longer fixed sentences for offences including homicide, assault, kidnapping, robbery, sexual
assault and the production of child pornography.

Police officers as well as army and prison service officials have been drafted in to prosecute
cases around Zimbabwe due to an acute shortage of civilian public prosecutors. The Justice
Minister said the development risked militarising the countrys public prosecution
department, and said the Justice Department was struggling to recruit more law officials
because of poor salaries.

Tanzania has launched a legal aid secretariat which will act as a regulatory body for legal aid
in the country. The Deputy Minister for Constitutional and Legal Affairs, who launched the
secretariat, said the issue of free legal aid services was key to the realisation of justice and
one of the fundamental components of access to justice which must be met if a nation is to
achieve equality before the law and equal access to justice for all.

A legal aid clinic has been inaugurated at Nagpur Central Jail in India. The clinic aims to assist
those awaiting trial and convicted prisoners in legal dealings and to ensure their rights are
protected by offering free legal services.

A man convicted of murder in New Zealand has been given a lighter sentence after his
mother apologised to the victims family, who forgave him after a traditional Samoan
apology where someone who has done wrong presents themselves, covered in fine mats, to
their victims family. As the man was in prison he was unable to complete the ceremony so
his mother stepped in to take his place, and the remorse shown and his mothers actions
were factors in the judge agreeing to sentence him to life imprisonment with a minimum
non-parole period of ten years, the lightest sentence he could have received in the
circumstances.

Prominent lawyers are joining those calling on China to reform its controversial laojiao, or
re-education through labour system, which allows suspects to be sentenced to forced
labour without first undergoing a trial. Critics say that because the penalties under laojiao
can exceed even the six month minimum penalty for criminal offences this undermines the
notion that system is used on people whose deeds are have not been serious enough to
constitute crimes. They also claim that the system is neither transparent nor well
supervised.

A report released in the US by the National Conference of State Legislatures showed that for
a variety of reasons, including cutting costs, state legislatures are moving away from the
punishment focused policies for young offenders passed in the 1980s and 1990s and
moving towards rehabilitation. Some states have raised the juvenile court age from 17 to
18, Colorado gave judges more discretion about which youths are transferred to adult court
jurisdiction, and 29 states enacted laws to improve mental health care for the young after
research showed that up to 70 percent of youths arrested had some kind of mental health
problem. However problems still remain, with the number of girls in the juvenile justice
system rising steadily over the past decade and few states offering any gender specific
treatment for girls in the system.

In Indonesia the government has passed a bill on juvenile criminal offenders which is
expected to reduce the number of children in prison. The bill allows investigators, attorneys
and judges to seek out of court settlements, with the approval of victims, for any crimes
committed that carry a sentence of less than seven years in prison.

Sixty four prisoners on death row in Zambia have petitioned the Attorney General over the
delayed hearing of their appeal cases before the Supreme Court. The prisoners want the
court to compel the State to compensate them for the mental anguish and torture they
have gone through as a result of the delay. They also want the court to order the
expeditious hearing of their appeal cases saying their constitutional rights have been
violated.

The Thai government has abolished the death penalty for those under the age of 18 and
further reduced life imprisonment terms for minors to 50 years in prison. The changes came
as part of conditions attached to Thailands application for candidature for membership of
the UN Human Rights Council.

The Minister of Law in Singapore has announced that apart from in cases of intentional
killing, the death penalty will no longer be mandatory but will be at the discretion of the
courts. The Minister told Parliament that once the legislation has been put in place, all those
who meet the requirements can elect to be considered for re-sentencing.

Prison policy

In the US the Idaho Department of Corrections has flown 130 prisoners to a prison in
Colorado because Idahos prisons dont have enough room to hold the states growing
prison population. The Department director said the move is hard on families, but the state
is simply out of room.

Also in the US Goldman Sachs will invest nearly 10 million in a New York City jails
programme using an innovative financial instrument in which private investments fund
public social services. The company will create one of the countrys first social service
bonds to help fund the programme which aims to lower the 50 percent recidivism rate
among young prisoners at the Rikers Island prison. The four year programme, in which
private non-profit groups will provide education and intensive training and counselling to at-
risk imprisoned young people, must reduce the recidivism rate by at least ten percent to
recoup the investment.

The number of Americans who cannot vote because they have been convicted of a felony
continues to increase. The Sentencing Project reported that in 2010 5.5 million voting-age
citizens were disenfranchised because of their criminal records, up by nine percent from
2004. About a quarter are in prison, but the rest have completed their sentences or are on
probation or parole. Only Maine and Vermont impose no voting restrictions on prisoners or
ex-prisoners, while the other states impose various restrictions and 11 states ban ex-
prisoners from voting even after they have completed prison and probation or parole.

In South Africa the Department of Correctional Services Womens Network has been
launched by the Correctional Services Minister. The Network aims at empowering female
officials as the department has been dominated by male officials for years.

Corrections Canada must reduce its spending by $295 million by 2015 as part of the
Conservative governments deficit-reduction programme. Canadas federal prison
population has been rising since 2006 and is now growing faster, annually, than the crime
rate is dropping leaving those working in prisons and those speaking for prisoners
concerned about where these cuts will take place. One of the ideas being considered is the
use of private companies to deliver some prison services such as cleaning and food
preparation. The Canadian government has also cut 20 percent of federal funding for youth
justice programmes, cutting $35.6 million used to supervise and rehabilitate young
offenders.

The three maximum security units of Swedish prisons Kumla, Hall and Saltvik remain less
than half full, despite costing the Prison and Probation Service 50 million kronor ($7.5
million) in 2011. The Service says this is intentional and that they strategically avoid filling
the units as prisoners are often dangerous and cannot be placed together, but the Justice
Minister has expressed concern that the costs are too high.

The Service for Supervision of Correctional Institutions in Norway has proposed closing 27
out of the countrys 60 prisons. The prisons that would be closed are those which hold less
than 30 prisoners because of their inefficiency.

The Justice Minister in the Czech Republic is proposing that the number of types of prison
should be reduced from four to two in order to cut costs. The Minister said he thought this
could be done by subdividing the existing prisons according to the type of sentence.

In New Zealand the private prison operator Serco has been given another large fine for
allowing a prisoner to escape. The company has now received $300,000 in fines since it
started operating Mount Eden prison a year ago. The company also failed to meet half of its
performance targets since taking over the prison, with only 28 percent of sentenced
prisoners having an appropriate sentence plan in place within required timeframes, three
prisoners wrongly released and three wrongful detentions.

The last 16 year old boy held in an adult jail in Ireland has been released in what is seen as a
milestone for the country. It brings to an end a practice, repeatedly condemned by
domestic and international prison watchdogs, of imprisoning 16 year olds with adult
prisoners. The next phase is to remove 17 year old boys, which is expected to happen in the
next 18 months.

Responsibility for prisons in Trinidad and Tobago has moved from the Ministry of National
Security to the Ministry of Justice. The Justice Minister has promised many changes
including more generous recreational time, a village concept with a supermarket, and
sporting facilities. The Minister also proposed to establish a Prison Ombudsman and Appeals
Tribunal with sweeping oversight functions that will safeguard prison officers from false
allegations while protecting prisoners from abuse.

Delegates from the Southern African Development Committee (SADC) have drafted a
training manual for the regions correctional service officers which will be in line with model
contemporary standards in training. Once endorsed by the relevant commissioners it will be
integrated as the training manual for the region. The manual was developed because
countries in the SADC face similar challenges and it was felt that training material used by
correctional officers should also aim to address these challenges in the region.

There were around 2,400 newly appointed volunteer probation officers in Japan in 2011,
the lowest number in ten years according to the Justice Ministry. The number of new
officers, who help former prisoners and others with criminal records to reintegrate into
society, was lower than the number of those who quit in 2011. In some areas of Tokyo the
number of probation officers was less than 60 percent of the figure needed. The Ministry is
undertaking a nationwide survey asking those who had been asked to be probation officers
why they declined, and what measures have been taken by local associations to recruit
probation officers.

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