Human Rights Commission: "Overcrowding in Correctional Facilities Exceeding Capacity Must Be Resolved Promptly"

[Source=National Human Rights Commission]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] The National Human Rights Commission has issued a recommendation to promptly resolve the issue of overcrowding in correctional facilities.

On the 6th, the Human Rights Commission announced that it judged the repeated complaints regarding overcrowding in correctional facilities as inhumane treatment exceeding the limits of the state's criminal authority and recommended that the Minister of Justice prepare improvement measures.

Four complainants, who were inmates held at detention centers and prisons in the Seoul metropolitan area at different times, filed complaints with the Human Rights Commission, claiming they suffered from worsening underlying diseases and mental distress due to overcrowding.

The respondents, including the heads of detention centers and prisons, argued that some overcrowding and treatment of the complainants were unavoidable due to the overall occupancy rate exceeding capacity, or that it was difficult to adjust individual inmate rooms because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and conveyed their opinions to the Human Rights Commission.

According to the Human Rights Commission's investigation, all complainants lived for some period during their incarceration in rooms where the number of occupants exceeded the capacity. Among them, one complainant lived for about 15 days in a room with approximately 1.40㎡ (about 0.4 pyeong) of space per person, and another lived for 120 days out of a total of 224 days in a room where the number of occupants exceeded capacity.

Regarding this, the Human Rights Commission's Second Committee for Remedy of Rights Violations found that the complainants, as typical adult males, had to be cautious even while sleeping to avoid contact with other inmates in such cramped spaces, which meant that they were not even provided with the minimum space necessary for basic human living. Furthermore, this treatment was deemed to constitute "cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment" under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which South Korea is a party, and to violate Article 10 of the Constitution, which guarantees human dignity and the right to pursue happiness, as well as Article 12, which guarantees bodily freedom.

The Human Rights Commission explained, "Although we have conducted on-site and ex officio investigations and issued recommendations more than ten times regarding the issue of overcrowding in correctional facilities, the matter remains a long-term problem that has yet to be resolved," and added, "Therefore, we have recommended that the Minister of Justice promptly resolve the overcrowding situation in correctional facilities."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.