"Write Letters on Behalf"… National Human Rights Commission Recommends Improvement of Rights Violations Against Visually Impaired in Correctional Facilities

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has recommended correctional facilities to guarantee physical freedom and external communication rights to visually impaired inmates held in detention centers.

On the 16th, the NHRCK announced that in relation to a recent complaint that Detention Center A excessively used protective equipment without considering the degree of disability of a visually impaired inmate, thereby restricting their physical freedom, it "recommended the detention center to implement measures to prevent recurrence, including conducting job training for staff."

It was confirmed that the detention center used protective equipment such as headgear and metal guards simultaneously on a severely visually impaired inmate without replacing them step-by-step. The detention center claimed that the protective equipment was used because the inmate exhibited threatening behavior that posed harm to the staff.

Furthermore, the NHRCK judged that the detention center's refusal to comply with the inmate's request for letter-writing assistance from staff constituted discrimination against persons with disabilities by infringing on their external communication rights. This is because visually impaired inmates face limitations in communicating with family and friends outside without assistance in letter writing.

The detention center responded that, except for legal documents related to lawsuits, letter-writing assistance is not considered part of the duties of detention center staff, and thus they refused the request.

The NHRCK stated, "Visually impaired inmates have the right to receive reasonable accommodations to ensure their external communication rights at a level equal to that of general inmates," and urged, "Prepare measures to provide accommodations to guarantee inmates' external communication rights."

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