International Trends in Correctional Facilities
Private correctional facilities are gaining popularity by governments in many parts of the world. A private correctional facility (prison, detention or jail) refers to a place where individuals are physically in facilities provided by a third party or a private entity through contractual agreements with the local or national government. The government pays the private entity a monthly rate or per diem per prisoner. Privatization may also refer to take over of existing public correctional or the building of new facilities by private entities. Privatization dates back to the days of the American Revolution whereby Great Britain, US colonizers, placed prisoners in hulks on English ports since it could not ship the prisoners to colonies such as the US. The reconstruction period also saw the rise in privatization of correctional facilities after the civil war in 1865-1876. Numerous convict leases were given to private entities in 1868 to handle issues with the freed slaves a system that remained in force until the 20th century. Many parts of the world also saw an increment in incarceration rates across the world beginning early1980s, due the intensification of the fight against drugs, arms, murders, civil injustices among others issues. Prisons became overcrowded and governments began to incur heavy costs in maintaining correctional faculties.
Privatization of correctional facilities has gained popularity across the world. As late as 2001, US Department of Justice estimated that there were 184 private correctional facilities holding 132, 346 prisoners across the world . The United States had the largest number of private prisons at 158 spread across 30 states. Australia had 12 with another 10 being in the UK. The total revenue allocated to private prisons was $1 billion. Many of these private facilities continue to host a wide variety of criminals including those in emerging crime such as cybercriminals, financial fraudsters among others. In 2013 the number of countries with private correctional facilities had increased from 3 in 2001 to 11. Scotland, Wales, New Zealand are some countries using private correctional facilities. Australia had the second largest percentage of private prisons at 19% while the US led with more than 60%. Immigration has been a pertinent issue in increasing private correctional facilities in the world. For instance, UK chooses to host many immigrant prisoners (73%) of them in private facilities while Australia hosts all immigrant detainees in private facilities. There are concerns that due to the evolution of crimes, the complex nature of modern criminals and the exposure to technology private correctional facilities may become questionable on their reliability.
High rate of violence in prison systems throughout the world
There have been increased levels of violence in prison systems throughout the world. There is more violence among prisoners who also direct more violence to the staff. According to a report by the BBC, there are about 18 million prisoners in the world today. The huge number of prisoners, world over has complicated incarceration with the rise in violence being a pertinent issue. The World Health Organization in a report titled “Prisons and health” reports that approximately 25% prisoners are victims of violence across the world annually while 4-5% experience sexual violence and a further 1-2% are victims of rape. Violence levels continue to rise because victims fear reporting for fear of reprisal attacks and the problems continues to be underestimated and overlooked. The issue undermines the very purpose of correctional facilities and more people in prisons mean more violence hence the viciousness of the violence cycle in prisons.
Violence in the world’s prisons continues to rise because victims and witnesses opt to be silent and many cases go unreported. A study on violence in prisons found out that 25% of all the victims of violence who had not reported violence against them failed to do so because they believe that reporting would not make any difference to their situations. An additional 20% fail to report for fear of retaliation attacks. As more people get incarcerated across the world, the institutions become expensive to manage as more prisoner demand more surveillance systems, more wardens, more secure cells and other security structures that would guard against violence. For instance, the ratio of warders to prisoners has increased and this stretches the capabilities of the warders to thwart violence instead the warders become victims of violence and this increases the violence rates in the world’s prisons.
Violence in prison systems has become complicated. Whereas in the past violence was mainly among the prisoners, today’s violence is directed to one’s family, specific groups associated with a person, one’s intimate partner and business partners. Moreover, the nature of violence has mutated to not only physical violence to psychological, sexual, and even deprivation or neglect.
A recent study showed that violence in the world’s prisons is highly prevalent among males. There was a male prevalence rate of 205 for every 1000 for prisoner-to-prisoner violence. The rates of prisoner-to-staff violence was even higher at 246 for every 1000 such relations. This figures show that a quarter of all prison staff are subjected to violence from their prisoners. Females showed similar trends on prisoner-to-prisoner violence while they attacked staff less at 8%. Small and medium prisons had more prisoner-to-prisoner violence while the larger facilities had higher rates of staff-on-inmates violence. The reason for this is that the larger prisons across the world housed more hardcore criminals and the prison staff tended to be violent to the inmates to silence them and thwart any kind of violence either among the prisoners or from the prisoners to the staff. A recent Australian study showed that men were victims of more violence at 34% while women experienced less violence at 24%. Interestingly, juveniles tend to be more violent in the world’s prison systems compared to the older prisoners.
The rise and increment of private prisons has contributed to high levels of violence in prisons. Studies in the United States showed that private prisons have a motive for profits and they may compromise issues such as staff training, staff remuneration, and have high staff turnover rates. They may also offer substandard services including hygiene and healthcare. All these issues lead to volatile prison environments, “that are more prone to abuse, violence, injury, and death” . For instance, in 2013, one of England’s private prisons, Thameside Prison, was criticized for high rates of violence while world-renowned security company, G4S was threatened with contract cancellation following high rates of violence and drug abuse in its private prison facility.
Current and/or developing trends in international corrections and the effect of the trends on criminal Justice
The first notable trend is that there have been massive increments in the number of people being out into prisons. The BBC estimates that there are about 18 million people in the world’s prisons today. Some countries have shows high tendencies to incarcerate people with 20 countries contributing about 75% of all the prisoners in the world. These countries include 8 Asian countries, 5 from the Americas, 4 European countries and 3 African ones. The populations have risen by 20% over the last 15 years and this matches the increments in world population that has also increased by 20%. The current figures are that for every 100,000 people 144 of them are incarcerated while it was 136 people in the last 10 years.
The high number of people being incarcerated means is somehow in proportion to the rise in the world population and it is a reflection of the global demographics. Criminal justice systems in the world have upheld their capabilities to handle crime although with increased challenges such as the evolution of more complicated crimes largely perpetuated through technology.
In addition, there are many people who are placed into pre-trial detentions world over and this is one of the issues that have increased the number of people in prisons in many parts of the world. China and the US are the leading countries in terms of prisoner number and they lead in pre-trial detentions. Since crime has evolved highly, the retention of many people in detentions or in cells prior to conviction, leads to unnecessary increments in prisoners thereby putting unnecessary pressure on governments. Countries with high pre-trial detentions are deemed to have upheld high importance on the need for individual liberty as well as community protection. Those countries that have shown high pre-trial detentions are deemed to be risk averse on issue of liberty and in this regard Poland had the lowest risk at 7.5% while India had the highest risk at 67.6%.
The rise in the number of pre-trial detentions is a blot in the conduct of criminal justice systems. It contravenes the huge democratic and liberty gains that many countries have had over the years through constitutional amendments to safeguard human rights and freedoms. Criminal justice systems ought to check into how less numbers of people are incarcerated without justice being done on their cases. In many jurisdictions accused people are supposed to be produced in courts of law and sentenced accordingly within 24 hours and their cases decided within the shortest time possible.
Moreover, there has been an increment in the proportion of foreign prisoners in almost all parts of the world due to massive immigrations and the settlement of people in foreign countries mostly for business and work purposes. The formation of trading blocs such as the European Union (EU) and the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) has allowed people to move across borders easily for business and social purposes. Once in the foreign countries, people are liable to prosecutions under the new country and this has contributed to increments in foreign prisoner populations. Criminal justice systems are under more pressure to handle foreigners due to the straining of diplomatic relations between countries. For instance, the passing of death sentences on drug traffickers nabbed in some countries that have passed such laws is always a huge test on the criminal justice systems of the countries involved.
The increment in female prisoners is another notable trend in international incarceration. In the past, female prisoners were a minority largely due to societal dynamics gender roles that sidelined women to household chores. However, the evolution of gender role and the affirmation of their freedoms, rights and equality to men under many constitutions across the world opened up women to crime. Although their numbers are way lower than those of men, women are incarcerated for the same crimes as men. In this regard criminal justice systems ought to stay put and apply their mandate to handle the two genders in lawful and humane manners when it comes to meting out justice.
The rise in private prisons as earlier noted is another global trend in incarceration systems across the world. The major reasons for using private prisons has been overcrowding at government prisons. The number of people facing factors that predispose them to crime and incarceration has risen. Socio-economic challenges such as poverty, lack of jobs, lack of proper healthcare and education have risen as well as the gap between the rich and the poor. These issues precipitate massive increments in prisoner numbers compelling authorities to use private prisons. Incidentally, many of these issues such as healthcare, hygiene, and demand for resources continue to plague many private prisons in ways deemed to subvert the intention of criminal justice systems which is to reform individuals in a humane and lawful manner.
The future of correctional facilities in the world and criminal justice systems faces an uncertain future due to the complexity of crimes, criminals, populations and democratizations. However, some issues can help to maintain effective correctional facility systems. The adjustment of sentences such as revaluating who goes into prison and for how is a sure way to help the current and future prison systems work effectively. A case in point has been the use of alternative community and multi-agency means to address drug use instead of incarcerations for all drug offenders. The use of community supervision to offer support to the prison systems stands to help them balance issues of incarcerations with socio-economic needs of societies to make prisons responsive to the needs of the people. In addition, addressing offender needs in prisons stands to reduce violence and effect correctional measures.
References
Austin, J., & Coventry, G. (2001). Emerging Issues on Privatised Prisons. Retrieved May 13, 2016, from Bureau of Justice Assictance: https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/181249.pdf
BBC. (2016). World Prison Popualtions . Retrieved May 13, 2016, from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/uk/06/prisons/html/nn2page1.stm
Byrnea, J. M., Pattavinaab, A., & Taxman, F. S. (2015). International Trends in Prison Upsizing and Downsizing: In Search of Evidence of a Global Rehabilitation Revolution. Victims & Offenders: An International Journal of Evidence-based Research, Policy, and Practice , 420-451.
Dreisinger, B. (2016). Incarceration Nations: A Journey to Justice in Prisons Around the World. Other Press.
Enggist, S., Møller, L., Galea, G., & Udesen, C. (2013). Prisons and Health. Retrieved May 15, 2016, from http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/249188/Prisons-and-Health.pdf
Mason, C. (2013, August). International Growth Trends in Prison Privatization. Retrieved May 13, 2016, from The Sentensing Project : http://sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/International-Growth-Trends-in-Prison-Privatization.pdf
