Human rights violations in maximum security prisons: USA and Russia

Prison Condition in USA vs. Russia

In assessing the human rights conditions of maximum security facilities, human rights groups look into 3 main areas: the duration of confinement; the conditions of confinement, and the criteria of eligibility. Each of these areas must be looked into individually and then considered in the context of the entire situation (Human Rights Watch). Quite a number of concerns have been raised about the human rights conditions of the individuals held in prisons including: mistreatment of inmates / detainees by prison officials; unsafe conditions; and lack of sufficient legal protection (United States Department of State, n.d.). This paper also compares the situation of prison facilities in the United States and Russia.

Introduction

The Standard Minimum Rules, or the SMRs for the Treatment of Prisoners are one of the most important international agreements on how prisoners should be handled. The SMRs were adopted in 1955 by a special United Nations congress (United States Department of State, 2012). However, studies have shown that most of the prison systems all around the globe do not treat prisoners at the standards recommended by the SMR agreement. In many nations, there is blatant disregard of international treaties on the treatment of prisoners and this paper deals with this issue with a special focus on the American and Russian prison systems.

According to the SMR, prison authorities have to treat prisoners with respect and human dignity. They should also not subject inmates to any form of treatment that could be classified as degrading, inhuman or cruel. It is however unfortunate that the public authorities in-charge of maximum security prisons are operating them in ways that basically violate human rights. The confinement conditions are unnecessarily severe and are not proportionate to the actual security concerns. The conditions also impose undue humiliation and suffering on the inmates. In short, inmates in maximum security facilities are treated with the lowest level of respect and without regards to human dignity (Human Rights Watch).

Literature review

Conditions

Currently there are more than 20,000 prisoners in the United States who are held in maximum security facilities or blocks. The typical day in most of these inmates lives, involves sleeping and walking around in tiny, locked cells that have no windows, shut using steel doors. They are allowed only a few hours to exercise or take shower, often in enclosed spaces.

Maximum security inmates have almost zero access to recreational or educational programs or any other kind of activity that can offer them mental stimulation. They are often handcuffed and escorted by a minimum of two prison officers every time they walk out of their cells (Human Rights Watch). Even for inmates that are truly dangerous such conditions are unnecessarily harsh especially when used for a prolonged period of time (Human Rights Watch).

Some prison officials and policymakers have admitted that some of the conditions in maximum security facilities are not for security purposes (Hounshell, 2010). They stress that such negative conditions are necessary as a deterrent to misconduct. There are, however many better ways to deter youths from committing crime than maintaining harsh conditions in maximum security facilities (Human Rights Watch).

In some states, maximum security inmates have access to "privileges" such as the television, radio or more telephone calls and can walk themselves to the shower without shackles or handcuffs. However, these privileges can often be taken away even for very small infractions (Human Rights Watch).

In the Russian Prison system, inmates in maximum security facilities such as Butyrka and Vladimir, are served in their cells. This is in contrast to America's Stateville where inmates have access to a common dining area. All prisoners at Butyrka and Vladimir are locked all day in their cells except for a 60-minute walk time and shower every 10 days. In contrast, inmates at Stateville can only be held all-day when they are in segregation or on lockdown. During such occasions they only have slightly better conditions than their Russian counterparts i.e. they have one shower and a 60-minute walk time every 7 days (Markovic, 2000).

Methodology

This paper would apply purposive sampling where the investigator utilizes a specific sample within a population to obtain information. This evades the different sections, backgrounds and focuses simply on the individuals in maximum security prisons. Purposive sampling allows for the utilization of differing methods of collecting data and in return to obtain huge volumes of data. The methods to apply in purposive sampling actually facilitate qualitative research. Given the availability of several maximum security prisons both in the United States and in Russia, the utilization of random sampling is important in picking a number of samples having a similar possibility.

Research question

How does the U.S. exactly compare to Russia in terms of abiding by the United Nations Standard Maximum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners in the top five Maximum Security Prisons?

Data analysis

The data shall be gathered from purposive sampling and random sampling shall be exposed to qualitative and quantitative methods of analysis. For simple evaluation, the data shall be represented using statistical tables and graphs. SPSS shall be a suitable method to utilize for quantitative analysis.

Conclusion

The disparities between U.S. and Russian prisons are quite clear, however, without any human right groups in the prison system of Russia and also without government financial support, the intense overcrowding, bad conditions of the prisons (Rosen, 2012), understaffing among other issues shall not be addressed. Even though overcrowding is also an issue in the U.S., the extent of overcrowding is much less than found in Russia. Additionally, American prisoners have the judicial system's recourse. Though the population of prisoners in Russia is more manageable, the overcrowding might actually stem from other cruel treatment that is not obvious from the surface (Markovic, 2000).