U.S. vs. Russia: Compliance With UN Prison Treatment Rules

Introduction

Nearly 9 million people worldwide are held under some form of incarceration or supervision. The United States has the highest number of prisoners or individuals under supervision, with approximately 25% of the world's prisoners held within its borders (U.S. Department of State, 2012). Prisoners across the globe are subjected to varying treatment because of differences in circumstances, the nature of incarceration facilities, cultures, and available resources. Nonetheless, prisoners remain a vulnerable population regardless of where they are held. Because governments are mandated with responsibility for prisoners' needs and welfare, the treatment of incarcerated individuals has attracted considerable attention over the years.

Following a special congress in 1955, the United Nations adopted Standard Minimum Rules (SMRs) for the treatment of prisoners (U.S. Department of State, 2012). These rules are among the most significant international agreements governing how prisoners should be treated across the globe. Recent studies have indicated that most prison systems worldwide do not treat prisoners according to the standards recommended by this agreement. Many nations blatantly disregard international agreements on prisoner treatment, and this research studies that issue with a special focus on the American and Russian prison systems.

According to the Standard Minimum Rules, prison authorities must treat prisoners with human dignity and respect. Authorities should not subject inmates to any form of treatment that could be classified as inhuman, cruel, or degrading. Research has indicated that public authorities in charge of maximum-security prisons are operating them in ways that fundamentally violate human rights (Human Rights Watch, 2000). The confinement conditions in such facilities are unnecessarily severe and disproportionate to actual security concerns. Given that these conditions impose undue suffering and humiliation on prisoners, those housed in maximum-security facilities are treated with the least respect and in the most inhumane manner (Human Rights Watch, 2000).

Literature Review: Prison Systems and UN Standards

Prison Systems in the United States and Russia

The United States has the highest prison population in the world, a fact that has contributed to the development of a prison system focused on enforcing rules, punishing or rehabilitating offenders, and maintaining public safety. Incarceration facilities are regarded as institutions for detaining criminals against their will (Barnes, 2011, p. 35). The American prison system is structured so that prisoners are housed in different facilities depending on the severity and impact of their offense. The highest tier consists of special super-maximum facilities that currently house approximately 2% of the country's prison population (U.S. Department of State, 2012). The American prison system relies heavily on solitary confinement, which has been used as a means of prison management and rehabilitation for a long period of time (Vasiliades, 2005, p. 73). This technique, now commonly referred to as segregation, is adopted as a standard operating procedure, a punitive measure, a protective measure, and as a means of ensuring the mental stability of prisoners. Through this approach, the U.S. prison system comprises segregation units — specific prison areas or secure housing facilities designated for different categories of offenses.

Bobrik et al. (2005) note that Russia has one of the highest imprisonment rates in the world despite recent legal reforms (p. 1). Similar to the United States, Russian prison authorities have begun using segregation or differentiation as a technique for incarcerating offenders. Inmates in Russia are no longer housed in communal barracks but are instead separated according to the severity of their offense. The Russian prison system differentiates incarceration facilities across the full spectrum of offense severity, grouping prisoners accordingly. Given this structure, prisoners in Russia negotiate and engage with surveilled penal spaces in distinct ways (Moran, Pallot, & Piacentini, 2013, p. 138).

UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners

The nature of prison facilities and conditions for prisoners vary throughout the world, just as cultures and available national resources differ. However, prisoners remain a vulnerable population dependent on governments to meet their basic needs and ensure their welfare. Governments across the globe are required to comply with standards and obligations that promote safe, humane, transparent, and secure prison environments. The UN Standard Minimum Rules (SMRs) constitute one of the key international agreements guiding the creation of such environments. Adopted at a special UN Congress in 1955, the rules provide guidelines for crime prevention and the treatment of offenders (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, 2011). They require prison authorities to treat prisoners with human dignity and respect while avoiding degrading or cruel treatment.

Treatment of Prisoners in the U.S. Prison System

Prison systems in the United States are built around the technique of solitary confinement, adopted after authorities abandoned penitentiaries — originally created by the Quakers to promote self-reflection and repentance — as the primary model of incarceration (Vasiliades, 2005, p. 73). Through solitary confinement, prisoners, especially those in maximum-security facilities, have been subjected to harsh treatment. The prevalent practice of solitary confinement not only reflects disregard for imprisoned offenders but also functions as a means of tormenting foreign nationals held within the American prison system. Furthermore, this technique is associated with several serious psychological consequences, including emotional damage, near-permanent mental harm, increased violent tendencies, and extraordinary malaise (Vasiliades, 2005, p. 77).

Listwan et al. (2013) argue that the U.S. prison system requires reform because of the seemingly inhumane treatment of offenders (p. 144). Prisons across the United States tend to increase subsequent levels of offending because of antagonistic relationships between inmates and prison officers, as well as direct victimization. Prisoners are subjected to harsh treatment ostensibly to reduce recidivism, yet the end result is often increased levels of crime. Moreover, prisoners in the United States are held in overcrowded facilities, given the country's extraordinarily high incarceration rate per capita. Overcrowding creates particular challenges for correctional officers managing aging inmates, whose rate of imprisonment has increased significantly in recent years (Maschi & Aday, 2014, p. 16). The resulting overcrowding makes it difficult for prison authorities to provide necessary care, especially healthcare services, to the aging prison population.

In his analysis of California's Pelican Bay Hunger Strike, Reiter (2014) notes that the American prison system can subject prisoners to conditions of severe sensory deprivation through prolonged solitary confinement (p. 579). The isolation generated torturous conditions, during which some inmates were denied adequate and nutritious food as well as access to constructive activities and privileges. Inmates responded to these constraints through a sustained hunger strike to advocate for better treatment. Preferential treatment of prisoners is also evident in the American prison system, particularly among adult inmates. Incarcerated African American young adults are excluded from national estimates of the prevalence of cigarette smoking despite accounting for a substantial proportion of smokers in this population (Kennedy et al., 2015, p. S73). This exclusion illustrates how prisoners in the United States are discriminated against with respect to health monitoring and stress-related research.

Conclusion

The treatment of prisoners has been a major issue in recent years given the increase in prison populations across the globe. As a result, several international agreements have been crafted to help promote better treatment of prisoners. One of these international frameworks is the UN Standard Minimum Rules (SMRs) for the treatment of prisoners, adopted at a special congress in 1955 (U.S. Department of State, 2012). These rules advocate for the treatment of prisoners with dignity and respect regardless of the nature of their crime or their location across the globe.

The proposed research seeks to examine how the United States compares with Russia in following the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners. The researcher will test the hypothesis that the United States follows these rules more closely than Russia. Previous studies indicate that both countries subject their prisoners to inhumane treatment; however, the degree of inhumane treatment varies between the two countries because of cultural differences and the differing nature of their prison systems. The researcher will apply the General Strain Theory, developed by Robert Agnew, as the theoretical framework.

The researcher will conduct a qualitative data analysis using prisons and prisoners from the American and Russian prison systems. The study will utilize purposive sampling to identify prisons to be included in the research and random sampling to select prisoners for interview. Both sampling approaches are employed in part because they enhance research validity and support the generation of accurate findings. The results of the research will provide insights into the differences between American and Russian prison systems in their compliance with the United Nations' Standard Minimum Rules for the treatment of prisoners.

References

Agnew, R. (2001, November). Building on the foundation of General Strain Theory: Specifying the types of strain most likely to lead to crime and delinquency. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 38(4), 319–361.

Aleinikoff, T. (2014). Between national and postnational: Membership in the United States. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 110–129.

Barnes, H. E. (2011). History and origin of the prison system in America. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 12(1), 35–60.

Bobrik, A., Danishevski, K., Eroshina, K., & McKee, M. (2005, August 1). Prison health in Russia: The larger picture. Journal of Public Health Policy, 1–30.

Chambliss, D. F., & Schutt, R. K. (2012). Making sense of the social world: Methods of investigation (4th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge Press.

Human Rights Watch. (2000). Supermax prisons: An overview. Retrieved from https://www.hrw.org/reports/2000/supermax/Sprmx002.htm

Kennedy, S., Sharapova, S., Beasley, D., & Hsia, J. (2016). Cigarette smoking among inmates by race/ethnicity: Impact of excluding African American young adult men from national prevalence estimates. Nicotine & Tobacco Research, 18(1), S73–S78.

Listwan, S., Sullivan, C., Agnew, R., Cullen, F., & Colvin, M. (2013). The pains of imprisonment revisited: The impact of strain on inmate recidivism. Justice Quarterly, 30(1), 144–168.

Maschi, T., & Aday, R. H. (2014). The social determinants of health and justice and the aging in prison crisis: A call for human rights action. International Journal of Social Work, 1(1), 15.

Moran, D. (2012). Prisoner reintegration and the stigma of prison time inscribed on the body. Punishment & Society, 14(5), 564–583.

Moran, D., Piacentini, L., & Pallot, J. (2011). Disciplined mobility and carceral geography: Prisoner transport in Russia. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 37(3), 446–460.

Moran, D., Pallot, J., & Piacentini, L. (2013). Privacy in penal space: Women's imprisonment in Russia. Geoforum, 47, 138–146.

Piacentini, L., & Slade, G. (2015). Architecture and attachment: Carceral collectivism and the problem of prison reform in Russia and Georgia. Theoretical Criminology, 19(2), 179–197.

Reiter, K. (2014). The Pelican Bay hunger strike: Resistance within the structural constraints of a U.S. supermax prison. South Atlantic Quarterly, 113(3), 579–611.

Sarang, A., Platt, L., Vyshemirskaya, I., & Rhodes, T. (2016). Prisons as a source of tuberculosis in Russia. International Journal of Prisoner Health, 12(1), 45–56.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. (2011). Standard minimum rules for the treatment of prisoners. Retrieved from https://www.unodc.org/pdf/criminal_justice/UN_Standard_Minimum_Rules_for_the_Treatment_of_Prisoners.pdf

U.S. Department of State. (2012). A practical guide to understanding and evaluating prison systems. Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/210347.pdf

Vasiliades, E. (2005). Solitary confinement and international human rights: Why the U.S. prison system fails global standards. American University International Law Review, 21(1), 71–99.