1. Introduction.
Prisoner’s hunger strikes have been a tool use by prisoners throughout the world to achieve their goals. Hunger strike usually comes as a last resort when the prisoner does not have any other peaceful means to protest. It is confusion for prison officials, they have to decide, either to save the life of convicts or allow them to die. However, in most cases prison officials responded to this by force-feeding. Prisoners are under state care and it is state’s responsible to protect their lives and health.
At global level the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Nelson Mandela Rules) of 2015 is quiet about hunger strikes and force-feeding. At the European level, the European Convention on Human Rights (1950) is a significant legal framework on the responsibility of state on issues on hunger strike and force feeding and European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR)(1959).
At the national level, government officials are often the most powerful as concern the protection of prisoners’ human rights and in the taking of crucial decisions on hunger strikes. Nevertheless, government officials are required to
However, WMA is a soft law and not binding. According to WMA, in hunger strike, a person has the mental ability to take his or her own health care decisions by not eating for a remarkable duration, with the expectation of achieving certain goal which will discredit the authorities, thereby expresses correct purpose to strike. Reyes, Allen, and Annas in their key article for the Medical Journal, propose to determine if hunger strike genuinely depends on its time span, if it involves “total fasting” or partial fasting. Reyes of the International Committee of the Red Cross defines hunger strike as including three elements: fasting, voluntariness, and a stated
The jobs of correctional officer are some times overlooked. Correctional officers are playing a huge role in society because they need to perform important tasks. A correctional officer’s job is not easy and can become very stressful at times. Correctional officers are required to enforce and keep order, supervise inmates, help counsel offenders, search inmate cells for contraband, and also report on inmate actions. Correctional officers need to contain power over the prisoners in order to enforce the rules of the prison, or else the prison will not function correctly. In the book, Conover says, “The essential relationship inside a prison is the one between a guard and an inmate…the guard, it is thought, wields all the power, but in truth the inmate has power too” (Conover, p. 207). In the book, the importance of power the prisoner’s hold can be seen through the sudden increase of prisoners, the Stanford Prison Experiment and through the contraband they make.
Prison litigation is a form of lawsuit process with which prisoners seek relief from prison. The Prison litigation Reform Act clearly outlines an increase in the litigation of prison cases that was enacted in 1996. Through such litigations, inmates are able to fight for their rights and fair treatment in prison. For instance among the prison ligations, we have prospective relieve where one can file a lawsuit to request the prison to change some of their policies to let one for example pray amongst groups. Exhaustion of remedies for administration also allows for one to articulate grievances against the prison official before suing them. Emotional or mental injuries are among other issues of prison litigation addressed in this prison litigation
However, the statistics that the author has presented to the audience; concerning these categories are just as interesting and as significant. The correctional facilities quality of living conditions when pertaining to cuisine is unpleasant. For example, the author discusses the equivalence between education, health care, and military facilities when compared to prison food, “Typically, the least expensive food is purchased by the subcontractor correctional facility…fruits, vegetables, and even meat are purchased at a discount…unsellable in a retail environment” (Ross, 2012, pg. 414). Therefore, within the general public many would not consider the quality of correctional cuisine to be as savage.
VonHofer, H. and R. Marvin. Imprisonment Today and Tomorrow: International perspectives. The Hague, The Neatherlands: Kluwer Law International, 2001. Print.
Rodriguez, Sal. "Day 41 of California Hunger Strike: CDCR Still Insists It’s A Gang Power
Nasal feeding is enforced to inmates on hunger strike that refuses to eat. Nasal feeding is a long process that can take up to two hours and is painful and unsanitary. According to Guantána...
In the 1970s, prison was a dangerous place. Prison violence and the high numbers of disruptive inmates led prison authorities to seek new ways to control prisoners. At first, prison staff sought to minimize contact with prisoners by keeping them in their cells for a majority of the day. As time went on, the prison authorities began to brainstorm the idea of having entire prisons dedicated to using these kind of procedures to control the most violent and disruptive inmates. By 1984, many states began construction on super-maximum prisons. In California, two supermax facilities were built by the state: Corcoran State Prison in 1988, and then Pelican Bay in 1989. The federal government soon followed suit and in 1994, the “first federal supermax opened, in Florence, Colorado.” It was not much longer before supermax prisons could be seen all over the country (Abramsky). In Wisconsin’s supermax facility, with similar conditions being found in a majority of supermaxes, there are “100-cell housing units” that are in groups of 25 cells. These cells all face a secured central area. Technology plays a major role in keeping the facility to the highest security standards. Every cell’s doors are controlled remotely and the cells include “video surveillance, motion detection and exterior lighting” (Berge). With these technological securities, there are also procedural precautions. Inmates are kept in their cells for 23 hours a day until their sentences are done. This is said to be for prisoner and staff safety, although some feel otherwise. In 2001, 600 inmates at Pelican Bay went on a hunger strike, demanding reform. Those on hunger strike believed that the isolation and deprivation they faced was against their Eighth Amendment rights. ...
In Ohio, five murders escaped a maximum-security private prison. The food budget can easily be manipulated compared to other parts of the budget. As a result, it is important to examine the food quality in prisons. In a case study of Taft Correctional Institution (a private prison), this private institution ranked the worst in quality of food, variety of food, and amount of food compared to all BOP facilities (Camp et al., 2002).
Two meals a day, less than 2500 calories, not enough to fill a toddler. Where and what is this place? Who is getting this food? Prisoners in the jails of the United States are where they are receiving these meals. One of the biggest complaints that come from Inmates is their food. Studies have shown when an inmate is released from incarceration, the first conversation they have with the outside world is the food but is it honestly all that bad? Is there no variety? The average American thinks of a prisoner's meal as a punishment, but they receive a mandatory set of meals and some food they are able to purchase themselves.
The number of individuals that are incarcerated in the United States on a daily basis has surpassed 2.2 million (Gibbons & Katzenbach, 2011). Annually, 13.5 million people at some point and time spend time in prison or jail with approximately 95 percent of them ultimately returning to society (Gibbons et al., 2011). Taking the aforementioned statement into considerations the author believes that it is safe to say that what goes on behind prison walls effects all members of society. When correctional facilities are unsafe, unhealthy, unproductive, or inhumane it affects both the people who work in them as well as the people that are living there at some point and time.
In 21st-century America, detainment is turning into a multibillion dollar industry every year, and will keep on increasing in extension in the coming decades. The “prison industrial complex" incorporates not just those organizations specifically included in conveying discipline (courts, adjustments,
The norms of the prison are held up by sanctions, both by the prisoners and by the violence of the guards. Some examples of these sanctions are the degradation ceremonies established new inmates as inferior, violence by the guards enforcing their power over the prisoners, prisoners act in such a way that these techniques fail, and being sent to solitary confinement. All of these enforce their isolation and works to break them as a human being, reminding them their role as a prisoner and their lack of power. By doing this, one would want to abide by the rules to veer away from any severe
America is often described as the land of the free, yet to the thousands of inmates that sit in prison this is a luxury they may never experience again. While common sense says that prisons are a necessary part of the world, America’s prison system has been neglected for far too long. Many prisons are on the brink collapsing and the living conditions of the inmate’s borderline on inhumane. In addition America has one of the largest prison systems in the world, and it shows as many prisons are bursting at the seams. As the government struggles to pay the deficient, often the prison system is the last thing on anyone’s mind as money is so tight. Still there must be something that can be done to improve the safety of not only the inmates, but
First, the “get tough on crime” policies are finding their way into America’s prison systems as the prison population continues to grow. Americans are tired of crime and encourage their Politian’s to advocate for harsher treatment of convicted criminals. The Federal Prison policies dictate that a prisoner does not have the right to expect privacy in a prison setting, nor have the right to speak freely if protesting; they cannot refuse to work or to choose what work they will do. Prisoners do have a right to visitors in order to stay connected with society. They also have the right to an education.
The origin of the word prison comes from the Latin word to seize. It is fair to say that the traditionally use of prison correspond well with the origin of the word; as traditionally prison was a place for holding people whilst they were awaiting trail. Now, centuries on and prisons today is used as a very popular, and severe form of punishment offered to those that have been convicted. With the exception however, of the death penalty and corporal punishment that still takes place in some countries. Being that Prison is a very popular form of punishment used in today's society to tackle crime and punish offenders, this essay will then be examining whether prison works, by drawing on relevant sociological factors. Furthermore, it will be looking at whether punishment could be re-imagined, and if so, what would it entail?