Introduction to Imprisonment

Seldom is an individual more vulnerable to neglect or abuse than while imprisoned. The treatment of prisoners is one of the most debated and monitored areas of current human rights advocacy.

Even before the modern conception of "human rights" arose, there was concern over the condition of prisons and the treatment of prisoners. The sweeping prison reform movements of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in Britain and the United States advocated that prisoners—regardless of offense—were entitled to adequate food and clothing, medical care, exercise, sanitary living conditions, and freedom from physical abuse. The most controversial aspects of the early prison reform movement centered on the prevention of maltreatment and physical abuse. For some reformers, this meant only freedom from physical torture. Others crusaded for the abolishment of hard labor, strip searches, and solitary confinement cells.

The international interest in the conditions of imprisonment began after World War II. The horrors of the Nazi forced labor camps (featured in this chapter) prompted international action to guard the rights of prisoners of war. The seminal documents protecting the human rights of prisoners of war and providing for the punishment of war criminals are in the chapter Development of Human Rights, but the incidents that inspired their drafting and fuel current debate are included here.

This chapter also highlights human rights issues that arise from imprisonment outside of the context of war. Criminal imprisonment and the debate over the use of capital punishment in the United States are discussed in "We, On Death Row". Interrogation, imprisonment, and execution by police states are highlighted in the article on Pinochet's persecution of political dissidents in Chile. "Open Letter to Deng Xiaoping" furthers discussion of prisoners of conscience—individuals jailed for their political, social, or religious associations and speech.

Debate continues over the rights of prisoners (detainees) held in conjunction with the War on Terror. The decision of several nations, including the United States, to indefinitely detain some terror suspects garnered international criticism. Several articles underscore the debate over prisoners at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.