That developing country prisons are often hellish places is widely understood. Conditions within them are often criticized for their essential unjustness. There is even the aphorism, attributed to Dostoevsky, that “the degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons." Yet the pernicious effects on governance of these broken institutions still receives short shrift in most countries. Given limited time and resources, after all, why not be concerned with people who suffer unnecessarily, rather than those who have presumably done something to earn their loss of liberty? If not for a sheer luridness that lends itself to (often sensationalistic) media treatment, they might merit even less attention.
But prison conditions matter a great deal, and the negative effects created by mistreatment often ripple throughout society. This can happen in lots of ways. Perhaps the most straightforward occurs when a petty thief enters an overcrowded, understaffed prison and is held in extended pretrial detention, all the while being exposed to the depredations of hardened criminals – and acquiring their skills. This occurs innumerable times a day, every day, throughout the world (and among supposedly advanced countries as well – the United States is notably retrograde in its attitude toward prison conditions).
Much worse results are possible as well. In many cases, human rights violations occur that lead to the physical and emotional degradation of prisoners, and often their deaths, which inevitably helps devalue human rights in society more generally. Latin America is notorious for violent, inhumane prison conditions*; while these to some degree reflect the reality outside, most observers agree that they also contribute to it.
More problematic yet is the scenario described in a fascinating New York Times article last week about the successful demands for special treatment carried out by Moroccan Islamists. Several things bear mentioning. One is that the worse the treatment the prisoners are subjected to, the worse the results can be for society. The tale described in the article of Abdelfattah Raydi is instructive: after being subjected to torture by Moroccan authorities, he blew himself up in an internet café. Correlation is not causation, of course, but the idea that the infliction of pain and humiliation upon an already troubled individual could lead to the final stage radicalization is all too plausible.
Another issue is the favoritism shown by authorities toward the Islamists. As described in the piece, the short-term, self-defeating nature of the strategy is evident. If prisoners determine that it pays to present themselves as extremists, that’s exactly what they will do. Moreover, such treatment clearly detracts from the (perhaps already feeble) deterrent effect of prison’s prospective privations.
The obvious answer to this situation is to improve prison standards and to focus on rehabilitation in order to at least prevent a trip to prison from leaving a person more likely to commit a (potentially more serious) crime than when he or she went in. A recent Economist article, based in part on a more detailed International Crisis Group report, describes one such effort being conducted in Indonesia, where ex-jihadis are being enlisted to counsel other inmates and convince them that attacks against civilians are wrong. As the piece notes, however:
[The ICG report’s] main [worry] was that the extreme corruption and disorder found in Indonesia's prisons may be negating all the scheme's attempts to persuade jailed militants that the system they are fighting is not utterly [un-Islamic].
This is the heart of the matter. Even if prisons fulfill their functions of punishment and prevention, if fundamental rights are violated and rehabilitation is not just ignored but actually reversed, prisons will fail to achieve their societal function. With crime rates rising in many parts of the world, including in states that are already fragile, developing countries can ill-afford to ignore the problems staring at them from behind bars.
*IPS articles sometimes require login but Googling the title usually leads to sites where the reports can be accessed.
Picture found at Time.com
