Penal harm

Last updated

Penal harm refers to a form of punishment that posits that inmates should endure additional pain and suffering beyond just having their basic rights taken away. This concept encompasses a range of unpleasant and miserable conditions and injuries harsher than mere "deprivation of liberty". These are justified by a certain ideology regarding custodial sentences, which are mainly served in prison or a reformatory. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

Overview

Proponents of penal harm state that the purpose is to prevent offending in order to stop further penal harm. [4]

Traditional forms include:[ citation needed ]

Criticism

There is poor evidence to suggest that penal harm has a deterrent effect once an offender's imprisonment is over. [4] It forms a controversial appendage of a body of theory known as retribution; its perception as cruelty rather than justice may endanger both internal security and prospects for rehabilitation and goes against the humane ideal of most human rights advocates, possibly qualifying legally as inhumane punishment, an infringement on human rights under the UN rules.

Although internal punishments, imposed by prison authorities, are not strictly penal harm as such, since they are not independent from the convict's behavior, arbitrary application and choice of cruel modes, including corporal punishment (in South East Asian countries this can include the dreaded rattan caning), perfectly fit the rationale.

In the 1990s and 2000s, penal harm has taken (among other things) the form of poor health care for inmates; [5] [6] this includes the denial of medicine for patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. [6] [7]

Penal harm can also arise unintentionally, as a result of understaffing, insufficient budget, or even legal considerations (such as delays deemed necessary for appeal procedures).

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Punishment</span> Imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome

Punishment, commonly, is the imposition of an undesirable or unpleasant outcome upon a group or individual, meted out by an authority—in contexts ranging from child discipline to criminal law—as a response and deterrent to a particular action or behavior that is deemed undesirable or unacceptable. It is, however, possible to distinguish between various different understandings of what punishment is.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Corrections</span> Terms related to conviction of crime

In criminal justice, particularly in North America, correction, corrections, and correctional, are umbrella terms describing a variety of functions typically carried out by government agencies, and involving the punishment, treatment, and supervision of persons who have been convicted of crimes. These functions commonly include imprisonment, parole, and probation. A typical correctional institution is a prison. A correctional system, also known as a penal system, thus refers to a network of agencies that administer a jurisdiction's prisons, and community-based programs like parole, and probation boards. This system is part of the larger criminal justice system, which additionally includes police, prosecution and courts. Jurisdictions throughout Canada and the US have ministries or departments, respectively, of corrections, correctional services, or similarly-named agencies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penology</span> Subfield of criminology

Penology is a subfield of criminology that deals with the philosophy and practice of various societies in their attempts to repress criminal activities, and satisfy public opinion via an appropriate treatment regime for persons convicted of criminal offences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solitary confinement</span> Strict form of imprisonment

Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to discipline or separate incarcerated individuals who are considered to be security risks to other incarcerated individuals or prison staff, as well as those who violate facility rules or are deemed disruptive. However, it is also used as protective custody on incarcerated individuals whose safety is threatened by others in order to separate them from the general prison population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration in the United States</span> Form of punishment in United States law

Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2023, over five million people are under supervision by the criminal justice system, with nearly two million people incarcerated in state or federal prisons and local jails. The United States has the largest known prison population in the world. Prison populations grew dramatically beginning in the 1970s, but began a decline around 2009, dropping 25% by year-end 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison reform</span> Reform of the prison system

Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are impacted by crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prisoner abuse</span> Mistreatment of imprisoned people by authorities

Prisoner abuse is the mistreatment of persons while they are under arrest or incarcerated. Prisoner abuse can include physical abuse, psychological abuse, sexual abuse, torture, or other acts such as refusal of essential medication, and it can be perpetuated by either fellow inmates or prison faculty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rehabilitation (penology)</span> Process to re-integrate a person into society

Rehabilitation is the process of re-educating and preparing those who have committed a crime, to re-enter society. The goal is to address all of the underlying root causes of crime in order to ensure inmates will be able to live a crime-free lifestyle once they are released from prison. It generally involves psychological approaches which target the cognitive distortions associated with specific kinds of crime committed by individual offenders, but it may also entail more general education like reading skills and career training. The goal is to re-integrate offenders back into society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penal labour</span> Type of forced labour performed by prisoners

Penal labour is a term for various kinds of forced labour which prisoners are required to perform, typically manual labour. The work may be light or hard, depending on the context. Forms of sentence involving penal labour have included involuntary servitude, penal servitude, and imprisonment with hard labour. The term may refer to several related scenarios: labour as a form of punishment, the prison system used as a means to secure labour, and labour as providing occupation for convicts. These scenarios can be applied to those imprisoned for political, religious, war, or other reasons as well as to criminal convicts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Penal system of Japan</span> Penal system of the State of Japan

The Penal system of Japan is part of the criminal justice system of Japan. It is intended to resocialize, reform, rehabilitate and punish offenders. The penal system is operated by the Correction Bureau of the Ministry of Justice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Capital punishment in Texas</span> Overview of capital punishment in the U.S. state of Texas

Capital punishment is a legal penalty in the U.S. state of Texas for murder, and participation in a felony resulting in death if committed by an individual who has attained or is over the age of 18.

Prison in Chile are generally poor. Prisons often are overcrowded and antiquated, with substandard sanitary conditions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison</span> Institution in which people are legally physically confined

A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, lock-up, hoosegow or remand center, is a facility in which convicted criminals are confined involuntarily and denied a variety of freedoms under the authority of the state as punishment for various crimes. Authorities most commonly use prisons within a criminal-justice system: people charged with crimes may be imprisoned until their trial; those who have pled or been found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HM Prison Chelmsford</span> Prison in Essex, England

HM Prison Chelmsford is a Category B men's prison and Young Offenders Institution, located in Chelmsford, Essex, England. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.

Compassionate release is a process by which inmates in criminal justice systems may be eligible for immediate early release on grounds of "particularly extraordinary or compelling circumstances which could not reasonably have been foreseen by the court at the time of sentencing". Compassionate release procedures, which are also known as medical release, medical parole, medical furlough, and humanitarian parole, can be mandated by the courts or by internal corrections authorities. Unlike regular parole, compassionate release is not based on a prisoner's behaviour or sentencing, but rather on medical or humanitarian changes in the prisoner's situation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration of women</span> Imprisonment of women

As of 2013, across the world, 625,000 women and children were being incarcerated in correctional facilities, and the female prison population was increasing in all continents. The list of countries by incarceration rate includes a main table with a column for the historical and current percentage of prisoners who are female.

Prison overcrowding is a social phenomenon occurring when the demand for space in prisons in a jurisdiction exceeds the capacity for prisoners. The issues associated with prison overcrowding are not new, and have been brewing for many years. During the United States' War on Drugs, the states were left responsible for solving the prison overcrowding issue with a limited amount of money. Moreover, federal prison populations may increase if states adhere to federal policies, such as mandatory minimum sentences. On the other hand, the Justice Department provides billions of dollars a year for state and local law enforcement to ensure they follow the policies set forth by the federal government concerning U.S. prisons. Prison overcrowding has affected some states more than others, but overall, the risks of overcrowding are substantial and there are solutions to this problem.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of United States prison systems</span>

Imprisonment began to replace other forms of criminal punishment in the United States just before the American Revolution, though penal incarceration efforts had been ongoing in England since as early as the 1500s, and prisons in the form of dungeons and various detention facilities had existed as early as the first sovereign states. In colonial times, courts and magistrates would impose punishments including fines, forced labor, public restraint, flogging, maiming, and death, with sheriffs detaining some defendants awaiting trial. The use of confinement as a punishment in itself was originally seen as a more humane alternative to capital and corporal punishment, especially among Quakers in Pennsylvania. Prison building efforts in the United States came in three major waves. The first began during the Jacksonian Era and led to the widespread use of imprisonment and rehabilitative labor as the primary penalty for most crimes in nearly all states by the time of the American Civil War. The second began after the Civil War and gained momentum during the Progressive Era, bringing a number of new mechanisms—such as parole, probation, and indeterminate sentencing—into the mainstream of American penal practice. Finally, since the early 1970s, the United States has engaged in a historically unprecedented expansion of its imprisonment systems at both the federal and state level. Since 1973, the number of incarcerated persons in the United States has increased five-fold. Now, about 2,200,000 people, or 3.2 percent of the adult population, are imprisoned in the United States, and about 7,000,000 are under supervision of some form in the correctional system, including parole and probation. Periods of prison construction and reform produced major changes in the structure of prison systems and their missions, the responsibilities of federal and state agencies for administering and supervising them, as well as the legal and political status of prisoners themselves.

A prison is a place where people condemned to a custodial sentence or awaiting their trial are held against their will. Prisons are also used to try to reintegrate inmates into society in order to prevent recidivism. French prisons are overflowing and the penitentiary personnel is understaffed. In 2003 the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT), an organ of the European Council reported "inhumane and degrading treatment" in French prisons.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration in Norway</span> Overview of incarceration in Norway

Norway's criminal justice system focuses on the principles of restorative justice and the rehabilitation of prisoners. Correctional facilities in Norway focus on maintaining custody of the offender and attempting to make them functioning members of society. Norway's laws forbid the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment as punishment. Prison conditions typically meet international standards, and the government permits visits by human rights observers. The system is considered to be transparent, and prisoners are represented by an ombudsman, an official appointed to investigate individuals’ complaints against public authority.

References

  1. Clear, Todd R. (November 22, 1994). Harm in American Penology: Offenders, Victims, and Their Communities - Todd R. Clear - Google Boeken. ISBN   9780791421741 . Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  2. Vaughn, MS (March 25, 2013). "Penal harm medicine: state tort remedies for delaying and denying health care to prisoners". Crime Law Soc Change. 31 (4): 273–302. doi:10.1023/a:1008332904378. PMID   16506338. S2CID   20138161.
  3. "NCJRS Abstract - National Criminal Justice Reference Service". Ncjrs.gov. Retrieved September 7, 2013.
  4. 1 2 Cullen, F T (August 1995). "Assessing the Penal Harm Movement". Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency. 32 (3): 338–358. Retrieved October 22, 2023.
  5. Maeve, Katherine M., and Michael S. Vaughn. "Nursing with prisoners: The practice of caring, forensic nursing or penal harm nursing?." Advances in Nursing Science 24.2 (2001): 47-64.
  6. 1 2 Vaughn, Michael S.; Smith, Linda G. (1999). "Practicing penal harm medicine in the United States: Prisoners' voices from jail". Justice Quarterly. 16 (1): 175–231. doi:10.1080/07418829900094101.
  7. Michael Welch (June 8, 2004). Ironies of Imprisonment. SAGE Publications. ISBN   978-1-4522-3739-8.