Topic: Prison Reform
Country: Mozambique
Delegate Name: Brian Rashid
School: Forest Hills Central High School
Topic page: background guide and all position papers All Mozambique position papers GLIMUN 2008 committees
The conditions of prisons today are merciless. In most prisons, inmates are victims of physical abuse and excessive disciplinary action. Overcrowding and double bunking are some things widespread through prisons. Prisoners are also subject to small cells and isolation for long periods of time. This creates mental illness and no physical exercise is ever allowed for these inmates. Today, prisons are actually doing the opposite of what we want. They are not punishing people for their actions; they are transforming people to become criminals. Prisons encourage violence and aggressive behavior. In fact, people are rewarded for this type of behavior and it’s clear that prisons create violent criminals from nonviolent ones. These actions have to be stopped.
Mozambique wants to stop this madness as soon as possible. After looking at some figures, this issue is a bigger problem than we had hoped for. The Bureau of Justice Statistics states that more than two-thirds of prisoners that are released are re-arrested within three years. These figures shout out that prisons are not affective as a deterrent and a reformer. People are re-arrested for simple things like missing an appointment with an officer and they are headed back to prison faster than ever. This is a huge problem and Mozambique wants to address this problem fast because we have a very high crime rate. We also are a very poor country and people are desperate for money. People don’t mean to steal money; they do it out of love for their family. Once people go to prison, then they become real criminals.
I think that most countries in the UN will support my side on this issue. I don’t think any country wants to have violent criminals running in their streets. Countries need help addressing this problem and we are here to help. We have to act quickly and easily or this issue will continue to get worse. I need countries to help give us ideas and help us set rules for prisons. Prisons need guidelines to go by or else they will keep doing what they are doing and do whatever they want with prisoners. We need help getting more money to prisons because I think having no money is part of the problem. Prisons can not pay for good hosekeeping for their prisoners and they over crowd rooms. We need little things like that to help us get started tackling this problem.
There have been some treaties that have tried to help reduce the conditions of prisons, however, very few of them have been successful. Prisons are continuing to get worse and we can’t stand by and let this happen. Action needs to be done on this issue and Mozambique is open to any suggestions that other countries may have. Everyone is in this together and if we all contribute to help solve this growing problem, I’m sure we will be able to make a great resolution.
