NCJ Number
88510
Journal
Deviance et societe Volume: 6 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1982) Pages: 391-413
Date Published
1982
Length
24 pages
Annotation
Experts from the Netherlands, Canada, (Quebec), and France comment on questions concerning the nature of the system whereby prisoners are insured human rights within an institutional setting by the corrections systems of their respective countries.
Abstract
The issues raised concern facility conditions, opportunities for release, extent of inmate-staff conflict, collectivization of inmates' rights, administrative resistance to institutional change, and plans for incorporating strategies of recourse to justice for inmates with grievances. The Dutch response takes the form of a discussion between a moderate and a radical advocate of prison reform. Although inmate complaint procedures exist, they are not structured to be cumulative and collectively applicable to all inmates and therefore lack systemwide effect. The commentary on Quebec argues for the adoption of a charter of inmates' rights to be universally applicable to the prison population. The French response faults the system for leaving inmate grievances to the discretion of facility administrators and argues for uniform, system-wide procedures for addressing prisoners' complaints. The Canadian paper gives three references.