Recommendation to the minister of justice and director of OO detention center to improve management of physically or mentally vulnerable inmates
After the death of an inmate in correctional facility on April 14, 2023, National Human Rights Commission of Korea recommended to the minister of justice and the director of OO prison to improve programs that manage inmates of old age and chronic diseases, limit punishment for physically or mentally vulnerable inmates, and enhance the medical check-up system.
The victim was a 68-year-old inmate who suffered from chronic diseases including mental disease and hypertension and was not properly protected by the Respondent when being detained in the sedation room wearing excessive protective equipment due to disturbing behaviors in the prison. In July 2023, Catholic Human Rights Committee filed a petition claiming that the victim died as the Respondent failed to provide adequate medical care and respond to emergency even though the victim was physically weakened due to prolonged disciplinary segregation.
The Respondent argued that the death of the victim was not caused by excessive use of protective equipment because the victim didn’t wear protective equipment after February 9th, 2023, when the victim caused disturbance. The Respondent also argued that an employee from the Respondent’s center asked the victim about condition after dinner to check the victim was fine. The Respondent checked that the victim was sitting against wall during patrols at 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. on the day of the incident. After an employee found the victim lying face down at around 06:27 and not getting up, the employee immediately performed CPR and moved the victim to the emergency room of Hallym University Sacred Heart Hospital at around 06:33. Therefore, the Respondent argued that there was no problem with the center’s measures to respond to emergency.
The Committee on Human Rights Violation 2 made the following judgement.
The victim was confined in a separate punishment room and segregated for most of the time since being transferred to the Respondent’s center. The Respondent customarily imposed disciplinary segregation for violations of rules without checking or considering how such long-term segregation would adversely affect the victim’s health. Excessive disciplinary segregation was imposed without consulting a mental health professional. Therefore, the Committee judged that the Respondent violated the victim’s right to health by inflicting punishment, only prioritizing the order in the correctional facility rather than caring about correction or rehabilitation of the inmate.
Moreover, the Committee concluded that there were insufficient protection measures as the Respondent failed to check the health status of the victim when wearing protective equipment and being confined in the sedation room for a long period of time. The Committee proposed that it is necessary to develop regulations to ensure that the health status of elderly inmates is checked before confinement, disciplinary segregation or use of protective equipment. The Committee also suggested that programs to manage inmates with chronic diseases be improved and tailored to the circumstances of each correctional facility.
Accordingly, National Human Rights Commission of Korea expressed condolences over the death of the victim and recommended the minister of justice and the director of OO prison to improve institutions to protect the right to health of physically or mentally vulnerable inmates of old age, mental diseases, or chronic diseases and prevent any recurrence of unfortunate accidents in correctional facilities.
