Topic: 2025 – Treatment of Prisoners
Country: Canada
Delegate Name: Disha Sriram
Topic: Treatment of Prisoners
Country: Canada
Delegate Name: Disha Sriram
School: Forest Hills Central High School
Committee: ECOSOC- Human Rights Council
The current way that prisoners are treated is extremely varied across the globe. From the laws that sentence someone to prison, the state of the prisons that criminals reside in, and the final charge, even resulting in a death penalty, all vary in pressure and enforcement that each prison implements. It’s known that more than 30 million people pass through prisons worldwide every year, and people who enter these environments were found to have multiple psychological and physical issues when exiting such as cognitive disabilities, harmful use of substances, chronic diseases, suicidal attempts, and more. In the US alone, from 2001 to 2019, suicide rates of prisoners increased by a shocking 85%, and that is due to the conditon that prisoners are left in. In most prisons around the world, it is typically found that prisoners are not left in the greatest conditions for rehabilitation, from cold cells to tight and confined spaces, prisoners develop serious issues that can impact their lives forever. This is not to say that there have not been measures implemented in order to protect prisoners from unbearable treatment, as the Mandela Rules, adopted in 2015, help to give prisoners better ways to sustain themselves by providing them with basic rights, such as focusing on non-discrimination and implementing restrictions on solitary confinement.
In Canada, while the Mandela Rules are adopted there as well, the treatment of prisoners is still in the works. With Canadian treatment of prisoners, the government has taken measures to implement better healthcare facilites and practices for inmates, but there are still many advancements needed to be made, specifically with pre and post treatment of prisoners, which the government has acknowledged are legitimate issues. That is why the Canadian government has adopted the CSC. The CSC works towards changing criminals into law-abiding citizens by contacting the offender right from the point of assesment to work directly with the offender and get their standpoint. The CSC also works on establishing correctional services for those to take responsibility for their actions. The CSC ensures that the correctional services that are provided continue on to the community they join after their release, in order to maintain the positive reinforcement they set up with the correctional services during their time in prison. With the idea of releasing prisoners in mind, Canada would not find it humane in any way, shape, or form to kill our prisoners, nomatter the sentence. Rehabilitation is a legitimate practice that is proven to work with time and perseverance, which is what the CSC strives to achieve through their dedication to helping current and former inmates.
With these ideas of rehabilitation in mind, the Canadian delegation would propose that the creation of rehabilitation centers for, not only current inmates, but former ones as well have rehabilitation centers, to integrate offenders back into a civilized society. Along with these rehabilitation centers, the need to re-educate inmates in their families and communities would be important, so the use of counciling along with these correctional facilities would be beneficial to re-introducing these people back into society, so the creation of institutions like the John Howard Society of Ontario, which has proven to be effective, could help current and former prisoners around the globe. Along with these ideas, the necessity for the creation of a donations fund to send money to countries who will struggle to create these facilities will be beneficial to the implementation of this plan, so it would be recommended that higher GDP countries would make contributions to this fund monitored by the UN. With these ideas of rehabilitation and reintegration of current and former prisoners back into society, the creation of a peaceful tomorrow can be established, and the idea of a second chance and benevolence can be restored.
