PRISON MANAGEMENT PART FOUR Prison management Security and violence A safe and secure environment is a prerequisite for rehabilitation, yet violence continues to be a problem in prisons all over the world. This is due to many factors, including poor conditions and overcrowding.259 For instance, Sweden saw a 39 per cent increase in violence amongst prisoners at the same time as its prison capacity grew from 85 per cent to 95 per cent in four years.260 According to the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, ‘the violence is not growing linearly along with the prison population. It is growing exponentially.’261 Gangs are responsible for much of the violence in prisons. In Canada there were reports that over 2,000 prisoners are known to belong to ‘security threat groups’, including Indigenous, Asian, motorcycle and street gangs.262 Gang-related violence at Leeuwkop prison, South Africa, left one dead and one critically injured.263 In Ireland, over half of all prisoners in the country’s biggest prison, Mountjoy, are in protection regimes for their own safety due to gang violence.264 There were efforts by some countries to address gang violence. Denmark introduced a new prison intelligence service to deal with gang issues265 with a ‘stronger internal investigative and security organisation…to better assess risks posed by individual prisoners’.266 The Ministry of Justice in Greece called an emergency meeting with prison directors to discuss prisoner violence, following a gang-related death of an Albanian prisoner.267 While there were prison riots in many regions, they were most acute in Latin American countries, including Brazil, Guatemala and Venezuela.268 A prison riot in Goiânia in Brazil left nine prisoners dead and 14 injured,269 while a prison break left nine prisoners dead and 19 on the run in the northern state of Tocantins.270 There were also reports of prison violence in Sri Lanka,271 Russia,272 Tajikistan,273 Indonesia274 and Haiti.275 In South Africa, an inquiry was launched by the Judicial Inspectorate of Prisons into the conduct of police and prison officials following a prison Deaths in prison A prisoner can die from so-called ‘natural causes’ such as illness or old age. There can also be deaths or serious injuries due to prison staff violence (including torture), sexual abuse (including rape), inter-prisoner violence, legitimate or excessive use of force by prison staff, self-harm, inadequate medical care, drug overdoses, or work-related or other accidents. Suicide is often the single most common cause of death in prisons.283 All of these serious incidents can constitute violations of one or more of the most fundamental human rights – in particular the right to life and the prohibition of torture and other forms of ill-treatment. Deaths in prison continued to be a concern in many countries during 2018. In India, reports suggest that on average there were five deaths per day in custody during 2017–2018.284 There were calls by the Asian Centre for Human Rights for India to ratify the UN Convention against Torture and for state agents (police, military and paramilitary) to be subject to criminal prosecution for committing torture in custody. According to reports by the Public Defender’s office for the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, one prisoner died every other day during the first four months of 2018;285 the majority Penal Reform International and Thailand Institute of Justice | Global Prison Trends 2019 riot at Pollsmoor Prison.276 Reports of torture and ill-treatment of people in prison were documented in several countries, including Turkey,277 South Africa,278 South Sudan,279 Iran280 and Saudi Arabia.281 Systemic and widespread abuse was also documented in Russian prisons.282 An investigation by Russia’s Federal Prison Service found 42 cases where of the deaths (55 from January to April 2018) were attributed to infectious diseases, poor prison conditions and a lack of healthcare professionals in the prison system. Deaths in custody among Indigenous communities was a key concern in Australia, with 147 Indigenous peoples reported to have died in the past decade.286 Mental health or cognitive impairment was a factor in 41 per cent of all deaths of Indigenous peoples in custody and many Indigenous peoples die in custody from treatable medical conditions. There have been calls for Australia to establish an independent system for monitoring these deaths; the Australian Social Justice Commissioner stated that ‘These are not just statistics, they are the human stories of what happens as a result of government inaction.’287 States are responsible for accounting for any death, injury or disappearance of persons it detains, regardless of how the incident occurred.288 All deaths in custody must be registered and reported to the competent authorities, including deaths that appear to be due to natural causes or suicide.289 States are also under a positive duty to investigate any death in custody. Further information is contained in the ICRC’s Guidelines for Investigating Deaths in Custody.290 | 27