Correctional System Check

Publish Date: 06/01/2001 
Story Type: SOCIETY; HUMAN RIGHTS 
Byline: JIM HWANG

PHOTOS BY CHANG SU-CHING

Prisoners are often at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to human rights, and in this respect Taiwan is no exception. But if recognizing the problem is the first step toward finding a solution, the island is at least on the way to offering its prison population a more humane environment. 

The inmates of a Tainan jail limber up. Prisoners are allowed to exercise for between thirty and sixty minutes a day, once or twice a week.

Prisons are places of confinement where the convicted pay for the crimes they have committed. Stripped of their civil rights, inmates have often had to accept filthy conditions, inadequate food, corporal punishment, and forced labor as part of the "package." This began to change at the end of World War II with the publication of various international human rights documents. Several of these affirmed that prisoners are just as entitled to fundamental human rights as anyone else. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, for example, stipulates that "all persons deprived of their liberty shall be treated with humanity and with respect for the inherent dignity of the human person." 

Several other documents flesh out the human rights of prisoners. One of the most comprehensive is the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners, which sets a standard for accommodation, food, discipline and punishment, exercise and sport, medical services, and communication with the outside community. The ROC was one of the original signatories of these documents in 1955, but due to its historic and political background, Taiwan lags behind developed countries with regard to protecting prisoners' essential rights. 

The issue has only recently gained public attention, in particular since the appearance of the island's first popularly elected president. "[Judicial] reform will also guarantee full respect for any fundamental human rights including those of prisoners," former President Lee Teng-hui said in his 1996 inauguration speech, while in his inauguration speech last year President Chen Shui-bian vowed to establish a national human rights commission. 

Some international human rights groups have begun to monitor human rights conditions in Taiwan's prisons. The French-based Observatoire International des Prisons, for example, has included Taiwan in its reports since 1998. And the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor publishes country reports on human rights practices; the Taiwan chapter examines prison conditions. 

Two local nongovernment organizations, the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR) and the Chinese Associa tion for Human Rights (CAHR) also monitor conditions in the island's prisons and publish relevant reports. Since 1991, the CAHR has conducted prison surveys on the quality of accommodation, food, medical service, and the freedom to practice religion and conduct communication with the outside community. It also tries to determine if corporal punishment is practiced and whether there is corruption among prison officials. 

As a part of the surveys, a panel of government officials, legal experts such as lawyers and professors, and legislators are asked to grade the level of human rights conditions during three stages of the judicial process--investigation, trial, and carrying out of penalty. Since 1997, with permission from the Ministry of Justice (MOJ), the CAHR has polled prison inmates on their conditions. Last year some 1,700 inmates in eighteen prisons and detention institutions were surveyed. In an effort to obtain objective responses, the questionnaire was neither drafted nor conducted by prison personnel. "Permitting us to enter the institutions and do the surveys ourselves was a major step toward the protection of human rights," says Chang Hsueh-hai, a standing member of the CAHR's board of directors. "Rather than shutting everyone out, these institutions are now willing to be monitored and examined by society, and make necessary changes." 

According to the CAHR survey results, the way in which punishment is administered has received better grades over the last five years than the investigative process or the trial of prisoners with regard to human rights. Last year's report stated that the highest grades went to the right to practice religion, reading, communication with the outside community, and a lack of forced labor. Prisoners generally are permitted to exercise thirty to sixty minutes a day, once or twice a week. They may receive family visits for several hours before and after lunch from Monday through Friday, and the first Sunday of each month. They have television privileges, and may receive approved reading material. Between breakfast and lunch, and again between lunch and dinner, they may attend religious classes or job training courses, or take up factory work. Any income they earn may be used to purchase personal items or additional food. 

The CAHR identified the most serious problems as being overcrowding, and corruption of prison guards. Overcrowding has been a perennial problem. Taiwan's fifty criminal institutions are divided into six categories: prisons, juvenile reformatory schools, vocational training institutes, detention houses, juvenile detention and classification houses, and detox centers. At the end of 2000, a total of 56,000 inmates were confined to these facilities nationwide--10 percent more than the officially sanctioned capacity. In theory the MOJ allows twenty-five square feet for each prisoner. In reality the cell area is not that spacious and varies depending on the "popularity" of the institution. According to the ministry's 2000 statistics, the number of inmates in the Keelung, Taipei, and Changhua prisons exceeded their official capacities by 70 percent. 

An increase in the number of convicted criminals is one of the main reasons for the overcrowded prison conditions, but there are also economic factors. Recent news reports suggest that a growing number of people choose imprisonment over paying a fine. Free meals and accommodation appear more preferable than living outside, where jobs are difficult to find and daily necessities are expensive. 

Corruption among prison guards is another serious problem. Before 1993, when smoking in prison was still banned, the illicit sale of cigarettes was the most common and profitable sideline for guards. Selling to a captive market, traders could charge a hundred times the going rate for a single pack of cigarettes. Rumor had it that inmates could order takeout from prime restaurants, XO brandy, drugs, and even women as long as they could afford them. With the Chen administration's launch of the MOJ's anticorruption campaign, these incidents have become less common, but graft continues to occur. Last year, a Taichung Detention Center prison guard was found guilty of accepting bribes in exchange for allowing two prisoners to escape. 

Besides overcrowding and corruption, Chang notes there are other areas in need of improvement. For example, although it is illegal to use corporal punishment in prisons, physical abuse occurs with regularity, according to former inmates, their lawyers, and families. While guards in the past may have been guilty of physical intimidation, it is now usually prisoners themselves who are guilty of "self-governing" tactics. 

In fact, abuse--physical or mental--is known to occur at the start of the judicial process. The Code of Criminal Procedure stipulates that no violence, threat, inducement, fraud, or other improper means shall be used against accused persons. However, police torture of suspects to get confessions is not unheard of. Last year, there was a case where police officers beat four youths suspected of a robbery. The actual culprits were found, and the four youths were released with the head of the police station publicly apologizing for the incident. 

Not all suspects are as lucky as those young men. It is still possible for an accused to be prosecuted, convicted, and sentenced to prison based on a confession obtained through physical coercion. "When someone is beaten up by the cops, convicted on the strength of a confession obtained through torture, and is worried about being physically abused in prison, it's hard for him to have any faith in the judicial system," Chang says. "Throughout the whole process, the most obvious message he gets is that physical superiority rules, and that's what he'll turn to when solving problems later on." 

The TAHR's annual report reflects the CAHR's findings. The TAHR, however, relies on its observations of conditions instead of questionnaires. Lee Mau-sheng, a professor of law at National Taiwan University and author of the TAHR report on prisoner human rights, saw no improvement last year. "Judging by the decreasing number of human rights violations in prisons, it seems that there was some progress," Lee writes. "But if you analyze the nature of these incidents, you realize that none of the problems have been solved." 

In addition to overcrowding, corruption, and poor performance as correctional institutions, prisons seriously neglect the inmates' rights to medical services, Lee points out. Currently, only one of the eighty-nine vacancies for prison doctors is filled. "Criminals tend to have very unhealthy lifestyles, and many inmates are not in the best of health," Lee notes. "With the current medical services available, they can only hope that their five or ten years in jail won't become a death sentence." 

The MOJ has its difficulties in recruiting doctors. The official monthly salary for a prison doctor starts at about NT$40,000 (US$1,220), but doctors can typically earn more than NT$100,000 (US$3,050) at a practice in a hospital. Some institutions try to deal with the problem by contracting doctors from nearby hospitals to provide part-time medical services, while the MOJ is planning to set up three medical prisons in northern, central, and southern Taiwan to house those who need treatment. 

Job training classes are offered to help inmates find work on their release, and whatever they earn in prison can be used to buy personal items or additional food.

Some of the MOJ's other efforts to improve prison conditions include building new facilities and expanding existing ones. Special areas for handicapped prisoners have been established, allowing them to receive satisfactory treatment and care. Prisoners over eighteen are permitted to smoke in designated areas at specified times, but they are encouraged to quit. More job training classes have been introduced to help inmates secure jobs upon their release. Stricter anticorruption regulations have been adopted to reform prison management. And prisoners are permitted leave in special cases such as to attend the funeral of a close family member. Some of these measures, however, have been criticized by human rights monitors as being impractical. 

Critics say the solution to overcrowding is not building more facilities. The official capacity of these institutions has almost doubled in the last ten years. Authorities should instead focus on preventing ex-convicts from returning to crime, they say. Repeat offenders account for more than half of Taiwan's prison population. "The main purpose of correctional institutions is to rehabilitate," Chang Hsueh-hai points out. "But currently, first-time offenders of minor crimes are often not rehabilitated but instead given a 'higher education' in crime. They go on to commit additional or more serious offenses upon their release." 

The MOJ's Department of Corrections, the highest authority governing Taiwan's prisons, has declined to comment on or respond to these criticisms. But observers see the problem not as a lack of law, but a lack of manpower, money, and ethics in enforcing the law. Lee Mau-sheng points out that the Department of Corrections has already spent a great part of its budget on personnel, and there is not much left for expanding prison management or conducting other prison reform projects. 

Chang Hsueh-hai believes the shortage of resources is one reason behind lowered ethics. Currently, Taiwan has about 4,000 uniformed prison officers and guards. Their monthly pay averages between NT$45,000 and $50,000 (US$1,372 to $1,524), and the job involves long hours--twenty-four on, twenty-four off--with frequent overtime. "Correctional institutions are the final defense of social justice, therefore we should have the best people employed there," Chang says. "Right now, the pay is just not enough to attract the best people with the highest ethics to do the job." 

Higher income may help attract people with better standards and help reduce corruption. The fundamental solution in protecting human rights, nevertheless, lies with people recognizing the laws and abiding by them. Taiwan has dozens of laws and regulations on the management of correctional institutions, but complaints of human rights violations are numerous. "Laws are made to protect human rights, so a country's judicial system and law enforcement are closely related to the status of its human rights," Chang says. "In Taiwan, the average person's willingness to adhere to the laws is just not mature enough, which means they don't know--or don't care--if they've violated someone's human rights." 

As matters stand in Taiwan, the human rights of prison inmates are even less of a concern than those of average citizens. According to the US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor's country report released last February, prison conditions on the island "generally meet the minimum international standards." Taiwan has a long way to go before the minimum standards are elevated to match its economic and democratic development.