On Feb. 11, six inmates serving long sentences in Kaohsiung Prison seized firearms and took hostages, holding them until the incident came to a tragic conclusion, with all six committing suicide.
Following amendments to the Criminal Code in 2006, Taiwan adopted a heavy-penalty policy to combat crime. As well as raising the threshold for parole, Taiwan followed the example of the US’ “three strikes law” that mandates heavier sentences for repeat offenders. With regard to sex offenders, Taiwan has adopted rigid surveillance measures modeled on Megan’s Law and Jessica’s Law in the US.
The government is determined to eradicate crime and has been striving to combat all criminals who threaten public peace and security, and damage the economic environment, ranging from pirates to drunk drivers. This policy reflects popular demands for a quick fix, but we are following the path of the US, which has the largest prison population in the world and the second-highest per capita incarceration rate. The US experience shows that these kinds of get-tough policies can have the effect of making things worse.
Statistics show that although Taiwan’s heavy-penalty policy has had a mitigating effect on the overall crime rate in recent years, the overcrowding in prisons keeps getting worse. Taiwanese prisons are meant to hold 53,000 inmates, but they have for a long time been accommodating more than 64,000, meaning they exceed capacity by almost 20 percent. Some academics say that Taiwan has become addicted to its incarceration policy. This situation highlights major defects, namely that experts’ opinions are not treated with respect, that the public has little faith in the government’s effectiveness and that the way criminals are punished is driven by populism.
The incident in Kaohsiung brings to mind the case of Ruiz versus Estelle, which has had a deep impact on prison policy in the US and in many other countries. In 1972, David Ruiz, an inmate in a Texas prison, sued then-director of the Texas Department of Corrections William Estelle, complaining that the state’s prisons were dangerously overcrowded and that worsening prison conditions violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition on “cruel and unusual punishment” and the 14th Amendment on rights to due process and equal protection under the law.
Ruiz won his case in 1980 and the ruling prompted changes in prison policy all over the US, with the authorities attaching greater importance to reducing prison overcrowding, improving inmates’ healthcare, avoiding unequal treatment, upholding prisoners’ rights to petition and appeal, improving inspection mechanisms and providing better education and guidance activities. These changes extended new emphasis on preparation for release and social forms of correction. The case and its impact could be described as a bloodless revolution.
The recent violent incident in Kaohsiung could be the last straw that breaks the back of Taiwan’s correctional system. The Kaohsiung Prison tragedy is merely the tip of the iceberg of difficulties facing the nation’s criminal justice policies. In the wake of the incident, prisons and detention centers will remain tense and unsettled, and it is likely that similar incidents will occur in the future.
The Judicial Yuan and the Ministry of Justice should lose no time in carrying out an overall assessment of the positive and negative effects of the existing heavy-penalty criminal justice policy and of problems concerning prison policy and management. They should thoroughly review the problems arising from the heavy-penalty policy, so as to provide reference points for reforming criminal justice policy and amending existing laws.
Shih I-huei holds a doctorate in criminology.
Translated by Julian Clegg
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