CULTURAL RISK FACTORS FOR TORTURE AND OTHER ILL-TREATMENT IN PLACES OF DETENTION section outlines some common and interrelated sets of such attitudes in places of detention (the list is nonexhaustive). It is important for monitoring bodies to remain watchful for the presence and development of these cultural risk factors. However, it should also be noted that some involve vested interests or issues of potential individual accountability, for example in the case of corruption, the use of coercion or presence of informal detainee hierarchies. Examining these issues may therefore involve a risk of sanctions for detainees, staff and members of monitoring bodies themselves. Monitoring bodies should therefore proceed on the basis of the principle of ‘do no harm’.18 a. People deprived of their liberty don’t deserve rights This view can manifest in different ways. In general it sees persons deprived of their liberty as lesser beings or as having forfeited their rights through committing wrongs – for example criminal acts or entering the country illegally. A common view is that ‘criminals’ should be treated badly as part of their punishment. However, this ignores the principle that the punishment is to be limited to the loss of liberty and has the effect of penalising prisoners many times over. In policing, the bending of rules can be justified by dehumanising the criminal suspect or on the grounds that police are working for a higher cause,19 for example fighting crime or terrorism. b. Loss of the individual As work in places of detention becomes routine, detainees can lose their status as individuals in the eyes of staff, becoming more like ‘inanimate objects’.20 This can be reflected in blanket policies or automatic responses that interfere with rights but are applied to detainees without individual risk assessments and regardless of their individual situation and needs. For example, when maintaining control becomes an overriding priority in places of detention, staff may routinely physically restrain detainees in response to minor infractions, or use mechanical restraint to punish perceived misbehaviour or for their own convenience rather than as a last resort.21 Chemical restraint (the use of medication including anti-psychotic drugs to control behaviour) may be commonly employed although other methods of managing behaviour are available and more appropriate. These represent high risk situations for illtreatment. c. Discrimination Discrimination is common and multi-layered in detention settings and can take place on the basis of ethnicity, nationality, gender, religion, sexual orientation and gender identity among other things. People from vulnerable and marginalised groups tend to be overrepresented among detainee populations, often in contrast with the demographic of staff. Stereotyping and attitudes of superiority and disdain towards minorities, which often reflect attitudes in wider society, can exist both among staff and other detainees. Such attitudes may also develop if staff only interact with minority groups in confrontational situations. Discriminatory attitudes make people belonging to marginalised groups more vulnerable to physical and verbal abuse. Discrimination also leads to denial of other rights. For example, in Pakistan, reports suggest that members of religious minorities in prison are more likely to be kept in poorer conditions and be subjected to interprisoner violence.22 Discrimination can also be the result of thoughtlessness and the fact that systems in place do not cater to the needs of specific groups. This has the effect of denying their enjoyment of rights on an equal basis with other detainees. In a report on discrimination, the UN Working Group against Arbitrary Detention expressed concern that ‘in some countries, the disabled, drug addicts and people suffering from AIDS are detained in places that are incompatible with their state of health and sometimes without treatment’.23 Discrimination against sexual minorities in detention According to the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture, ‘in detention facilities, there was usually a strict hierarchy, and […] those at the bottom of the hierarchy, such as gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender persons, suffered double or triple discrimination’. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Discriminatory laws and practices and acts of violence against individuals based on their sexual orientation and gender identity, 2011 (A/ HRC/19/41). Women deprived of their liberty are exposed to multiple forms of discrimination. Female detainees are particularly vulnerable to sexual abuse, both by staff and other detainees. Detention systems that were designed for men and that are managed by male-dominated organisations often do not cater for women’s specific 18. The ‘do no harm’ principle means that monitors should keep in mind at all times the safety of people who provide them with information. At a minimum, the action or inaction of monitors should not jeopardize the safety of persons deprived of their liberty, their relatives, staff of institutions, monitors themselves, or other individuals with whom they come into contact. See APT, Detention Monitoring Briefing no. 4: Mitigating the risks of sanctions related to detention monitoring, 2012; and OHCHR, Professional Training Series No. 7, Training Manual on Human Rights Monitoring, 2001, p88. 19. B D Fitch, ‘Understanding the Psychology of Police Misconduct’, The Police Chief, Vol. 78, 2011, pp24-27. 20. E Goffman, ‘On the characteristics of Total Institutions: Staff-Inmate Relations’, in The Prison, Studies in Institutional and Organisational Change, D Cressey (ed), International Thomson Publishing, 1961, p68. 21. European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, CPT Standards, CPT/Inf/E (2002) 1 – Rev. 2011, p60. 22. U.S. Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2011, Pakistan, 2011. 23. Report of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention to the Commission on Human Rights, December 2003, E/CN.4/2004/3. 8 | Penal Reform International | Institutional culture in detention: a framework for preventive monitoring