Completion of survey on inmates" ability to exercise their right to petition a NHRC complaint
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has completed a study, commissioned to Professors Soon-lae Lee and Kyuwon Jang of Wonkwang University, to survey 1,084 inmates at 18 correctional facilities across the country and interview 24 correctional facility officials. The Wonkwang team of professors carried out the survey from September 2002 to March 2003 and selected the sample of 60 persons per each of the 18 correctional institutions by the random sampling method. The main findings of the study are as follows.
1. Awareness of the NHRC complaint system
Only 32.9% of those surveyed responded that had detailed knowledge about the NHRC complaint system whereas 19.5% responded that they knew absolutely nothing about it. The survey also found that persons in facilities holding detainees whose cases were still pending knew less about the complaint procedure than convicted persons in prison facilities.
Whereas only 16.6% knew that correctional facilities are required to inform inmates of NHRC complaint procedures at the time inmates are committed, a full 55.6% responded that they had no knowledge of such obligations. Only 20.1% of inmates knew of the system in which NHRC officers travel to correctional facilities to directly receive complaints by interviewing inmates, while those responding that they did not know about that system numbered 50.7%. Additionally, only 12.6% of inmates knew that they had the right to file a complaint with the NHRC even while serving time whereas 65.3% had not known that they could file a complaint while being punished for a crime. Here, age appears to have played a role; persons under 20 years of age and persons over 50 tended to know less about the NHRC systems and their rights to file complaints.
2. Education programs about the right to file a complaint
Although all of the correctional institutions responded that they had carried out education programs explaining inmates rights to file a complaint at the time inmates were first committed to the institution or during the incarceration period; however, over half of the inmates replied that they were never given any education or information about such rights or systems at the time they were committed nor afterward while incarcerated.
3. Perceptions about the possibility of disadvantage incurred as a result of filing a complaint
39.0% of respondents replied that they thought disadvantage would accrue to those who file a compliant whereas 36.9% thought that there would be no disadvantages occurred. This perception—that those who file a complaint would suffer disadvantage—was more prevalent among men (40.5%), convicted prisoners (42.2%), inmates with long criminal records and inmates who had been previously incarcerated for another crime.
4. Exercising the right to file a complaint: Sub-survey results for respondents possessing detailed knowledge about NRHC procedures (833 persons surveyed)
- 35.5% responded that they had either directly experienced or witnessed obstacles to exercising the right to petition the NHRC owing to lack of concrete information
- 26.0% personally experienced or witnessed cases in which the lack of confidentiality—with regard to the substance of the complaint—hindered inmates from exercising their right to file a complaint
- 23.9% responded that they had either directly experienced or witnessed the non-petitioning of a complaint owing to fears of retaliation if they submit a complaint to the NHRC
14.6% of respondents replied that they had direct knowledge of interference or hindrances to exercising the right to petition a complaint (either personal experience of someone around them), and the types of complaints that were most subject to obstruction and interference were complaints that dealt with correctional facility officers’ denying inmates their human dignity or cases involving correctional facility officers’ discriminatory treatment of inmates (15.6%).
5. Ways the right to petition a complaint were obstructed (sub-survey results for those with direct or indirect experience of obstruction or interference with the right to petition: 122 persons)
A sub-survey of persons who had directly experienced or witnessed interference obstructing inmates’ ability to exercise their right to file a complaint revealed that persons interfering with such rights are mostly correctional facility officers; 56.6% responded that correctional institution officers obstructed complaint filing and 13.1% responded that fellow inmates hindered complaint filing. In terms of the way complaints were hindered, the correctional officers’ insinuating that disadvantages would be accrued to the person who files a complaint (37.7%) outnumbered more naked methods (20.5%) such as correctional officers’ not giving complaint forms to inmates who request them.
6. Disadvantages to inmate complainants who file a NHRC complaint (833 persons who possessed detailed knowledge about the NHRC complaint system)
Inmates who either directly experienced or witnessed disadvantageous treatment of complainants by correctional facility officers amounted to 9.3%, disadvantage in the form of fellow inmates’ censure or criticism was 8.3%, and disadvantage in the form of verbal abuse at the hands of fellow inmates was 7.8%. In the case in which complainants suffered disadvantage at the hands of correctional facility officers, the form this took was largely discriminatory treatment (41.5%), penalizations or disciplinary measures (13.0%), threats (13%) and efforts to appease complainants (13%).
7. Correctional facility officers’ perceptions of complaint-filing on the part of inmates (survey of inmates, in-depth interviews with correctional facility officers)
It is quite common for correctional facility officers to have dualistic and clashing perceptions of the act of complaint-filing by inmates. For example, in interview statements, one correctional facility officer said, “I can’t really stop a complaint from being filed and it wouldn’t be right to obstruct filing even if I could. The trend of the times seems to be toward safeguarding human rights, so we have to change, too.” On the other hand, the same officer also stated that, “those problem inmates hassle and harass us officers so that they can increase their standing and gain a lot of advantages for themselves,” or “inmates use the NHRC complaint system to threaten and victimize us officers.”
With regard to inmates’ complaints about getting medical treatment, abusive or violent behavior on the part of correctional facility officers, and correctional facility officers’ denying inmates their human dignity, correctional facility officers replied that causes included: inadequate facilities, imperfections in the system, and customary practices within correctional institutions. With regard to survey results indicating that over half of inmates reported not having received notice nor education about complaint procedures either at the time of entry into the facility or later, when incarcerated, correctional facility officers replied that, “the reason for those survey results is even though notice and education sessions are carried out either at time of entry or afterward, inmates are apathetic and don’t pay attention.” On the one hand, inmates thought that procedures for petitioning a complaint could be streamlined if a NHRC representative were stationed at the each correctional facility; on the other hand correctional facility officers felt that there should be sanctions imposed to prevent abusive use of complaint procedures.
