Prison Reform

Half of a debate Forum in The Pragmatist, with me arguing, from a minarchist (minimalist government) perspective, for public safety, restitution (to both victims and taxpayers) via rehabilitative gainful employment (with entrepreneurs hiring convicts to work in prison), vs. an anarcho-capitalist view of criminal justice, based upon the principle of restitution and a free market in policing.

Policies regarding masturbation among incarcerated men vary throughout the United States. To describe the state of these policies, a systematic review of prison masturbation policies was conducted. The review revealed that masturbation among incarcerated men is banned in most U.S. prisons (sometimes in all cases, and other times only when it is intended to disturb others, and/or is public). Furthermore, many states' Departments of Corrections have made these policies difficult for the public to identify. Prison masturbation bans have been defended on the grounds that they reduce STI transmission, help maintain order, prevent hostile work environments for female prison staff, assist in prison rape prosecutions, and assist in rehabilitating incarcerated people. By reviewing the available social science and endocrinological research on masturbation, those justifications are found to have minimal basis in scientific evidence. Conversely, the evidence does suggest the masturbation bans could potentially be linked with higher rates of violence, rape, exploitation, sex offender recidivism, insomnia, stress, depression, and suicide. Instead of being rooted in evidence, bans on prison masturbation seem to be primarily motivated by sex-negativity and the desire to retributively punish incarcerated people. To alleviate these harms, this article suggests allowing incarcerated men to masturbate within specifically identified circumstances, and/or to lessen existing punishments for masturbation. Potential problems with the implementation of the suggested policy are discussed, and a call is made to make inmate handbooks, which contain most of these policies, available to the public. Unique opportunities for penological and sexological research are identified.

Antiprison activists have often turned the federal court system to reduce the violence of the carceral state. However, such reform attempts have too often had the unintended conse‑ quence of fortifying the penal system. In this article, I interrogate one such intervention—a federal court order that encompassed the Louisiana Department of Corrections from 1975 to 1998. I argue that while the lawsuit was declared a success in reforming Angola, the federal court's intervention buttressed and legitimated the growth of the Louisiana penal system. This paradox was produced through the limits of liberal reform ideology that failed to recognize the structural violence of incarceration. Rather, the federal courts located violence with prisoners instead of the punitive power of the state and racial capitalism. This framework not only led to an increase in punitive practices within Angola, it came to underpin penal expansion as the primary solution to cyclical overcrowding. In the summer of 2016, the New Orleans city jail was in the spotlight yet again. Just over 8 months after the opening of the shiny new " Orleans Justice Center " 1 the jail was already marred in a lawsuit filed by the US Department of Justice (DOJ) and a number of incar‑ cerated people (Mustian 2016b). The lawsuit charged the Orleans Parish Sheriff Office (OPSO) with violating the constitutional rights of prisoners through significant misman‑ agement and routinized violence. Central to the plaintiffs' suit was a request for the jail to be taken out of the hands of Orleans Parish Sheriff Marlin Gusman and placed under fed‑ eral receivership. This request while heralded by several local prison reform organizations was fiercely contested by not only Gusman and the powerful Louisiana Sheriffs' Associa‑ tion but also a number of local leaders who argued that placing the jail in federal receiver‑ ship would amount to the disenfranchisement of the voters of Orleans Parish that elected

Abstract
Using scholarly research, the plight of children of incarcerated individuals, namely incarcerated mothers, is focused upon.  Questions addressing stigmatization issues, psychological implications, sociological factors, and education are discussed.  Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory is used as a tool to evaluate the effectiveness of prison nursery programs.  The main inquiry is based on this social bond theory.  Whether or not the prison nursery concept is a real solution to prevent future delinquency in children who may otherwise not have the opportunity to bond with their parent is addressed. 
Conclusions:
Through interdisciplinary research it was concluded that sudden separation and intermittent exposure to incarcerated parents can cause lasting social/emotional issues that may have a long-term effect on development, which has the potential to lead to future delinquency.  Through programs that encourage parent and child bonding, recidivism and delinquent behavior is prevented/reduced, though aggression in these children remains a lasting concern. 
Keywords: parental incarceration, corrections, mothers, inmate, behavior, social bonding, delinquency, prison nursery, aggression

New York City’s Rikers jail complex is gripped by a crisis of legitimacy.
Following a series of investigations, it has been denounced as a major symbol of criminal justice dysfunction, with calls for its closure and replacement with new smaller “state of the art” jails. Yet, when it opened, Rikers was hailed as a “model” facility, at the cutting edge of prison design and prisoner rehabilitation. To elucidate the present situation, we provide a focus on the under-explored history of New York City’s penal institutions.

As mass incarceration and the racial and socio-economic injustices that fuel it continues to plague the U.S., contemporary religious scholarship has become increasingly aware of and responsive to these problems through a variety of theological analyses and ethical calls for change. Yet many of these religious responses seem to fall short, myopic in their analyses of what has created and sustained the prison industrial complex and limited in their subsequent calls for reform. Drawing upon the work of Richard Osmer and Juan Luis Segundo, this paper argues that practical theology offers a useful corrective theo-ethical lens, their methodological frames simultaneously engendering more precise and thorough analysis as well as more imaginative and liberative responses. Specifically, this paper argues that practical theology calls for a shift in theo-ethical discourse and action from prison reform to that of prison abolition.

Policies regarding masturbation among incarcerated men vary throughout the United States. To describe the state of these policies, a systematic review of prison masturbation policies was conducted. The review revealed that masturbation among incarcerated men is banned in most U.S. prisons (sometimes in all cases, and other times only when it is intended to disturb others, and/or is public). Furthermore, many states’ Departments of Corrections have made these policies difficult for the public to identify. Prison masturbation bans have been defended on the grounds that they reduce STI transmission, help maintain order, prevent hostile work environments for female prison staff, assist in prison rape prosecutions, and assist in rehabilitating incarcerated people. By reviewing the available social science and endocrinological research on masturbation, those justifications are found to have minimal basis in scientific evidence. Conversely, the evidence does suggest the masturbation bans c...

The journey towards achieving ideal custodial conditions for our inmates in Nigeria has remained intractable and as old as the prison system itself. A juxtaposition of the present state of our prisons in Nigeria with what obtains in other civilized Countries of the world has left so much more to be desired having avoidable gaps between the law, regulations, politics and what obtains in real life. The challenge has remained the complete obliteration of the fundamental Human Rights of the inmates through the subhuman custodial conditions to which they are subjected. The foregoing conditions have been exacerbated by the deplorable working conditions under which the personnel under whose care the prisons and inmates have been kept operate. A classical case of " The hunter has become the hunted ". The case for the reform of the Nigerian prisons has long been overdue drawing from contemporary global best practices and the compelling need to respect the constitutional rights of the inmates. This paper evaluates the conditions of our prisons and makes far reaching prescriptions for radical and compelling reforms.

The United States is in the midst of a public health crisis: Every year, well over 24,000 Americans die from opioid overdose. This staggering death toll is equivalent to a weekly jumbo jet crash. After a decade of rapid growth, overdose caused by prescription opioids and heroin now tops the accidental death rankings, beating out automobile accidents, AIDS, and other high-profile killers. Overdose does not discriminate, cutting across all geographic, economic, and racial divides. But some groups are especially vulnerable. This article is dedicated to one such group: individuals re-entering the community from correctional settings. In the immediate two weeks after release, people in this group are almost 130 times more likely to die of an overdose than the general population.

It is easy to cast post-incarceration substance use — and consequent overdose — as the re-entering individual’s character weakness or a propensity towards reckless behavior. Nevertheless, modern addiction science reframes such relapse as a foreseeable consequence of the chronic nature of substance use disorders. This scientific evidence also provides clear guidance on how most of the resulting fatalities can be prevented. This article considers the creation of fatal overdose risk among formerly incarcerated individuals as an unacceptable collateral harm emanating from criminal justice involvement.

In order to address this largely overlooked public health problem, we explore a range of legal channels that can help persuade the state (broadly construed) to address a risk to which it substantially contributes. We consider a number of doctrinal approaches, guided by the belief that spending time behind bars must not translate to a death sentence for so many Americans. Whether as a part of possible legal actions or an action agenda on its own right, we present a number of programmatic interventions and policy reforms that may alleviate this crisis. Our analysis also highlights the potential role of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in facilitating overdose prevention before, during and post-incarceration. This agenda is especially timely given the current move by federal and state governments towards releasing large numbers of individuals incarcerated on drug-related charges to ease prison over-crowding or as a result of legal reforms, pardons, or exonerations.

In Section I, we provide an overview of the opioid overdose epidemic and the special vulnerability among criminal justice-involved individuals. In Section II, we examine the scientific evidence on prevention measures that should be, but are currently rarely deployed to address this vulnerability. In Section III, we explore various legal theories that could be invoked in efforts to motivate government actors to take a greater responsibility for preventing post-incarceration overdose deaths. In Section IV, we cover additional mechanisms to motivate institutional change. We conclude by outlining a policy and programmatic agenda for reducing the vulnerability of criminal justice-involved individuals to opioid overdose.

В статье рассматривается противоречивый процесс принятия нового прогрессивного Уголовного кодекса в Великом княжестве Финляндском в конце 19 века. На примере которого, можно проследить как развитие политической активности общества, так и националистических настроений.

Fueled by a "moral panic" that evolved through the 1990s and into the mid-2000s, the war on "sex offenders" paralleled the war on drugs and was slated to eventually replace it as the drug war seemed to wane in popularity and success.  With the exception of property crimes and illegal immigrants, sex offense crimes have now become the fasted growing felony category entering the American prison system.

Granted, these are individuals who may have used poor judgment, who may have broken societal laws, and who certainly require redirection and rehabilitation, but like any human being, they do not deserve the criminal punishment and reprisals that include a lifetime of prison followed by societal castigation and abuse.  Like any addictive condition, the proclivity or preoccupation with fantasy crimes, even the most distasteful, qualify as a behavioral condition first and should be treated as such.

As part of a Gender & Security Toolkit Coordinated by ODIHR, DCAF and UN Women, Omar wrote the guidance document on places of deprivation of liberty and gender.

The Toolkit sets out in more detail why it is important to integrate a gender perspective into policies and practices concerning places of deprivation of liberty, covering key definitions related to the topic, including a discussion on non-binary understanding of gender and the importance of understanding intersectionality

This article analyses processes of international policy transfer and diffusion in an understudied aspect of security sector reform: prisons. It looks at how Latin American countries, especially Brazil, have responded to a growing security crisis of capacity, effectiveness and violence within their prison systems by adopting, adapting and even resisting reform models available globally in three reform areas: prison administration (state-run versus forms of privatisation and public-private partnerships); control (the technologies of super-max versus the intelligence- and relationship-centred approach of dynamic security); and governmentality (the ethos
underpinning state and societal treatment of offenders as subjects and objects of penal discipline). It also examines how Brazil has produced its own home-grown models of penal governance—prisons run by civil
society in partnership with the state—which challenge some of the current dominant tropes in prison reform. The globalization of neoliberal modes of governance may often aim at institutional monocropping, and isomorphism certainly occurs, yet examination of actual practices confirms that Brazil, and the region, have adopted a hybridised diversity of penal reforms.

Depuis la naissance de la prison pénale, la pensée, les débats et les tentatives de réformes touchant à la condition pénitentiaire, la répression et la prévention du crime sont en perpétuel mouvement, mais toujours d'actualité 1. D'où l'ambition de mettre en perspective certaines problématiques très contemporaines en croisant les approches disciplinaires autour d'un dialogue entre le passé et le présent. La réflexion et la mise en oeuvre des réformes débutent en Occident à la fin du XVIII e siècle et au début du XIX e siècle lorsque, progressivement, les nations abandonnent les châtiments corporels et introduisent la peine privative de liberté dans l'arsenal des mesures répressives. Très rapidement, la réflexion prend une dimension résolument internationale en raison d'abord du modèle qu'ont pu constituer les pénitenciers de certains Etats, mais aussi de la formation de réseaux et de rencontres entre les experts, les fonctionnaires et les universitaires intéressés par la réforme des prisons. Durant les deux premiers tiers du XIX e siècle en effet, la dynamique de la réflexion n'est ni pénale, ni criminelle 2 , mais centrée sur la réforme des prisons. À l'image du droit civil, une fois promulgués en France et en Europe les premiers codes pénaux, la question du droit pénal apparaît résolue et n'occupe plus vraiment le terrain, au niveau tant de la réflexion que des innovations législatives. Les pensées et politiques réformatrices se focalisent sur l'exécution de la peine, envisagée comme le moyen de prévenir et traiter la criminalité. Deux précisions sont importantes pour en saisir la portée : c'est une période-en ses débuts tout au moins-où l'on a foi en la possibilité de transformer l'homme par la peine, mais un temps aussi où l'exécution et les aménagements de cette dernière sont entièrement entre les mains de l'administration pénitentiaire : la mission du juge, en ce domaine, s'arrête dès le prononcé du jugement 3 , et cela pendant plus d'un siècle. En 1935, au congrès pénitentiaire international de Berlin, les congressistes s'affrontent encore sur l'opportunité de la confier à un juge pénal. En France, 1 Concernant la prison et sa réforme, Michel Foucault observait qu'elle « a toujours fait partie d'un champ actif où ont foisonné les projets, les réaménagements, les expériences, les discours théoriques, les témoignages, les enquêtes. Autour de l'institution carcérale, toute une prolixité, tout un zèle (« Surveiller et punir, Naissance de la prison, Paris, Gallimard, 2004, p.238) ». 2 D'un point de vue historique, ces termes sont synonymes. L'adjectif « criminel » prévaut sous l'Ancien Régime jusqu'à la fin du XVIII e , puis est supplanté par « pénal » pour ce qui touche au droit répressif sous la Révolution française, avec la promulgation du code pénal de 1791 ; la procédure, elle, reste « criminelle », une dénomination confirmée avec la promulgation du code de procédure criminelle de 1808, et qui régnera jusqu'en 1952, date de la promulgation du nouveau « code de procédure pénale » (Jean-Louis Sourioux, « Petite histoire de la lutte pour la vie des deux adjectifs les plus typiques du vocabulaire répressif », Code pénal et Code d'instruction criminelle, Livre du Bicentenaire, Paris, Dalloz, 2010, p.81-85). 3 La mission du juge aux Etats-Unis est même atténuée lors du prononcé de la peine à partir de l'introduction des sentences indéterminées, d'abord dans l'Etat de New York en 1876, puis progressivement dans l'ensemble des Etats. Ils se contentaient en effet le plus souvent d'indiquer à titre de peine le minimum et le maximum prévu par la loi, laissant le soin à une commission administrative de décider de la relaxe, et ceci jusqu'aux réformes menées dans les années 1980 (Jean-Paul Brodeur, « Réforme pénale et sentences : expériences nord-américaines », Déviance et société, 1985-Vol. 9-N°3. pp. 165-200).

Recent suggestions have been made that theology may have more to offer on matters related to the subjects of punishment, corrections, and rehabilitation than has often been acknowledged in the scholarly literature. This essay sets out to explore the merits of such claims with regard to how they might assist ongoing efforts to address mass incarceration, including the theological dimensions of punitive justice along with other potentially redemptive realities that theological reflection may illuminate and make more visible. Consideration will be given to the ongoing role that religion plays in the life of the prison before giving consideration to the ontology of the church as a social actor, especially as locally-constituted within the prison-the ecclesia incarcerate, or the prison church. The theological rationale for the basic existence of such an actor is explored along with the effects of such a vision for this kind of transformation the church may experience along with both promises and potential challenges that come with the church having its own ontology, not as a given, but as a creature of grace.

Direct brain intervention based mental capacity restoration techniques — for instance, psycho-active drugs — are sometimes used in criminal cases to promote the aims of justice. For instance, they might be used to restore a person’s competence to stand trial in order to assess the degree of their responsibility for what they did, or to restore their competence for punishment so that we can hold them responsible for it. Some also suggest that such interventions might be used for therapy or reform in criminal legal contexts — i.e. to make non-responsible and irresponsible people more responsible. However, I argue that such interventions may at least sometimes fail to promote these responsibility-related legal aims. This is because responsibility hinges on other factors than just what mental capacities a person has — in particular, it also hinges on such things as authenticity, personal identity, and mental capacity ownership — and some ways of restoring mental capacity may adversely affect these other factors. Put one way, my claim is that what might suffice for the restoration of competence need not necessarily suffice for the restoration of responsibility, or, put another way, that although responsibility indeed tracks mental capacity it may not always track restored mental capacities.

iv Epigraph v Chapter 1: Introduction 1 Chapter 2: Literature Review 9 Chapter 3: Methods and Methodology 26 Chapter 4: Political Opportunities Amidst the Rise of the Prison Industrial Complex .... 34 Chapter 5: The Angola Special Civics Project 45 Chapter 6: Conclusion 69 Bibliography 78 Vita 82

This article explores the early years of the campaign for ‘ordinary’, not politically-aligned, prisoners’ rights in Ireland. It argues that this campaign has often been overshadowed by the activities of ‘political prisoners’, who only constituted a small minority of prisoners in the period. The article follows the development and changing tactics of the ordinary prisoners’ movement, through the rise and fall of the Prisoners’ Union (PU) (1972–3) and into the early years of the Prisoners’ Rights Organisation (PRO) (1973–6), which would become the longest-lasting and most vocal penal reform organisation in Ireland, until the formation of the Irish Penal Reform Trust in 1994. It argues that the movement constantly adapted its tactics to address emerging issues and opportunities. Ultimately, it contends that by 1976 the PRO was an increasingly legitimate voice in Ireland’s public discourse on prisons. It shows that, although the campaign did not achieve any major penal reforms in this period, it had a significant impact on public debates about prisons, prisoners’ mental health, the failures of the penal system, and prisoners’ entitlement to human rights.

Although the Philippines’ Revised Penal Code is touted as one of its most enduring pieces of legislation, its vaunted permanence is matched by a series of seemingly ceaseless attempts to have it overhauled. The recurring reason given in favor of its revision is the Code’s alleged rigidity—its adherence to an old school of penology which pays more attention to the crime than to the criminal, and its failure to provide means to rehabilitate delinquents. I argue that neither the retributive nor rehabilitative schools of thought contribute to the eradication of crime and the reformation of criminals. As such, the current discourse concerning Philippine penal law must go beyond the debate between the retributive and rehabilitative ends of punishment. It should explore instead alternative perspectives on law and punishment, and open up new avenues of discussion and research on the matter.

A mid-twentieth century prisoners’ rights revolution gave American prisoners unprecedented access to courts for exercising newly elaborated constitutional rights. The result was a tide of litigation brought by inmates and subsequent remedial court orders requiring corrections officials to improve conditions of confinement. It was in this context of aggressive judicial intervention into prison operations that the private prison industry emerged. Some early proponents of prison privatization claimed that the private sector could provide superior prison conditions and thereby reduce judicial intervention. This article assesses this claim empirically. It uses data on state and federal adult correctional facilities from the Bureau of Justice Statistics to compare the prevalence of reported court orders among public and private correctional facilities in the United States from 1990 through 2005. Results from a series of logistic regression analyses reveal that privatization has had little effect on the likelihood of judicial intervention into correctional facilities.

La réforme carcérale annoncée en 2000 avait deux objectifs affichés : des raisons humanitaires (améliorer les conditions de détention) et sécuritaires (rétablir l’autorité de l’État dans les établissements) ; elle consistait essentiellement à remplacer les dortoirs par des cellules d’une à trois personnes. Or ces dortoirs étaient des lieux de socialisation et de politisation, notamment pour les organisations kurdes et l’extrême gauche. La résistance des prisonniers a pris la forme d’une grève de la faim qui, pour diverses raisons, s’est trouvée assez vite isolée de l’opinion publique, et a donc pris un tour plus désespéré et radical. Dans la conduite de leur réforme, les autorités turques ont su prendre appui sur les pressions européennes, en sélectionnant parmi les demandes exprimées par les institutions européennes celles qu’il leur convenait d’appliquer, quel que soit le rang de priorité que l’Europe pouvait leur avoir attribué.

The present study analyzes the effectiveness of a culturally relevant prison rehabilitation program carried out with 41 inmates at a California jail. The aspect of prison rehabilitation has not received enough attention by researchers previously. In this case, the author conducted an in-depth quantitative analysis on a survey with participants that he was teaching. Regression analysis was used to explore the data. The results of the regression indicated that the culturally-relevant instructor significantly enhanced violence prevention (r (37) = .410, p < 0.05). Furthermore, the study also found that cultural relevance significantly impacted communication and relationship skills (r (37) = .423, p < 0.05).

This book explains the existence of illicit markets throughout human history and provides recommendations to governments. Organized criminal networks increased in strength after the enforcement of prohibition, eventually challenging the authority of the state and its institutions through corruption and violence. Criminal networks now organize under cyber-infrastructure, what we call the Deep or Dark Web. The authors analyze how illicit markets come together, issues of destabilization and international security, the effect of legitimate enterprises crowded out of developing countries, and ultimately, illicit markets' cost to human life.

Drawing on objects from across the Center’s collections, this exhibition focuses on the experience of prisoners in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and the structures that confined them. Featuring iconic representations of life under lock and key by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Joseph Wright of Derby, George Romney, and Francis Wheatley, these images were conceived at a time when prisons were coming under intense scrutiny.

In 1773 the penal reformer John Howard began four years surveying the prisons of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and northern Europe before publishing in 1777 his State of the Prisons in England and Wales, an unprecedented study of the woeful conditions in which convicts were confined. The impact of his demand for sweeping reform is reflected not only in the popularity of the theme of incarceration and emancipation in the work of contemporary artists but also in the architectural drawings and designs included in this exhibition. George Dance the Younger’s iconic Newgate Prison (1769), a rusticated fortress of punishment, is contrasted with a pioneering design for a new jail on a progressive, radial plan by Sir Jeffry Wyatville, itself based on the ‘scientific’ Panopticon of Jeremy Bentham. This in turn is juxtaposed to Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin’s critique of the extension of the radial prison plan to the architecture of the workhouse for the indigent poor and his own proposals for a more humane and less utilitarian structural alternative in his 1841 publication, Contrasts.

This exhibition will also include prison ephemera, cell keys, and a collection of mugshots from the Nottingham House of Correction, as well as a photographic record of the West Riding Prison and its officers from the 1880s. Taken together, the representations of both prisons and prisoners in this exhibition will aid to illustrate the historical thinking about justice, imprisonment, and punishment.

Captive Bodies: British Prisons, 1750–1900 has been organized and curated at the Center by Courtney Skipton Long, Postdoctoral Research Associate, Art Collections.

W.E.B. Du Bois’s The Philadelphia Negro continues to inform the contemporary disciplines of sociology, geography, and criminology. This essay explores how Du Bois’s study of the social and geographical organization of Philadelphia’s black residents was informed by prison reform discourse of the period. Founded in Philadelphia in 1787, the Pennsylvania Prison Society is among the oldest and most influential prison reform organizations in American history. By reading The Philadelphia Negro alongside Du Bois’s earlier and contemporary writings about the sociology of race as well as some of the principal insights disseminated by the Pennsylvania Prison Society, the essay demonstrates how racial and criminal identities performed in and through space respond to dominant ideologies about race and the institutions that uphold them.

In my conversations with Todd Lester at FreeDimensional, I suggested that the exploration of the complex questions confronting arts residencies in conflict areas might benefit from discussions that are rooted in stories. I felt that stories about the real people, places and events involved in the work might provide a healthy foundation for our discussions. Given this, I think I have an obligation to start off with a story. When you hear the term " conflict area " many here probably imagine that it is in reference to some place else; a place with street fighting, or IED's or, teeming refugees. But my story is from a conflict zone that is much closer to home. In the 1980's when I started to work there it was known as the California Department of Corrections. At the time, it was also considered a slow-motion war. A war where the frontlines were hidden behind razor wire in places like the Folsom mainline, the Soledad mess hall and San Quentin the prison yard and the combatants were known as, Nuestra Familia, Black Guerilla Family, Aryan Brotherhood, and the CA Correctional Officers Association. At its height, this invisible war was killing at least one prisoner or officer a week and wounding hundreds. Prisons like Soledad and the Duel Vocational Institution (also known as the gladiator school) were locked down for as much as half the year. My experiences during this violent time has informed all my work since-particularly my interactions with artists in places like Cambodia, South Africa, Northern Ireland and the former Yugoslavia researching the book Art and Upheaval. So it's the summer of 83' and we were running multidisciplinary arts programs at a dozen powder-keg institutions. Amidst the chaos, nearly 400 resident artists are interacting with over 10,000 inmates and staff. Needless to say it was hard and crazy. At Soledad the paint cart for mural program was continually getting commandeered as a gurney for shanked inmates. Because of lock downs at San Quentin we were having a hard time getting artists into condemned row which, in turn, led to increased tension and self destructive behavior by condemned prisoners. Late in the summer we started getting desperate calls from Wardens down south asking how fast we could put together prison yard concerts so that prisoners could let off steam. Anyway, in the middle of all this it becomes really clear that we could use all the advice we could get. The first place we went for " technical assistance " was a guy named Verne McKee. Verne was president of the both the Art and Musicians Guilds at Vacaville Prison. Back when we started he told us that bringing the arts into Vacaville would save both lives and money. He was right about that. He was also right-on with the advice he gave to me in the summer of 83'. He said that our honeymoon was over and that given the rising tensions in the system, there were a lot of lives at stake with little room for error. Then he shared what I have come to call Verne's Rules. Here they are:

The article is focused on the problem of establishing prison inspections in Ukraine according to
recommendations of the European Prison Rules and other international prison standards. This
problem becomes topical due to the future constitutional reforms in Ukraine concerned with
reforming of the Prosecution Service of Ukraine where the Prosecution Service of Ukraine will be
deprived of its function of supervision over legality for execution of the judicial decisions in
Criminal cases. The article pays attention to different actors which are responsible for or
involved in monitoring of conditions for prisoners. A special attention is also paid to distinctions
between independent monitoring and governmental inspections. Conclusions are focused on the
leading role of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in establishing external prison inspections.

Key words: Prison inspections, European Prison Rules, rights of prisoners, prosecution service of
Ukraine