Mauritius is not an isolated case when it comes to atrocious prison conditions. If rich developed countries cannot afford to establish humane detention facilities how will the government here, already overstretched financially, be expected to cope? Drug trafficking and consumption, sexual intercourse, rape, suicide and overcrowding are not alien to prisons around the world.

The United States, the biggest economy on the planet, also keeps the largest prison population in the world. It is estimated that, at any one time, 1% of its population is in jail. Its unfair judicial system seems to condemn more Blacks that Whites. African-Americans make up 46.5% of state prisoners and 40% of federal prisoners although they constitute only 12.6% of the population, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Twenty-five years ago, the US prison boom started. Due to a zero-tolerance policy many were locked up, even first time offenders and minors. While it is easy to get into jail, the conditions inside are dissonant with that country’s presumption of being a paragon for the world. Sexual promiscuity thrives: inmates sell, ‘auction off’ or ‘rent out’ others for sex. HRW estimated that “22 states and the federal system operated at 100% or more of their highest capacity” This organisation also points out the problems that lead to violence in prisons; “idle inmates, with long sentences, little hope of early release (and hence little incentive for good behaviour) and jammed into poorly equipped facilities sometimes became violent.”

Ireland and Britain have followed the same pattern. State-of-the-art facilities are sometimes underfunded, which make them useless. Mountjoy, Ireland’s biggest jail, suffers from a variety of ailments. Drug smuggling, bullying, mental depression, suicide are common aspects of penitentiary life. In a previous study, 21% of inmates claimed to have started injecting heroin while serving their term while nearly 60% said that they continued to ‘shoot’ in prison. Suicide among prisoners happens too often, as in Britain, where the rate is spiralling, especially among women.

<B>An unsolvablepuzzle</B>

In the Southern hemisphere, the situation is not better. Brazil boasts notorious prisons, where rioting among detainees and escapes are frequent. Overcrowding, decrepit facilities and lack of staff plague the country’s jails. In August this year, a riot in a 1,200 capacity prison left 8 prisoners dead. It was found that there were only five prison guards on duty and the prison was operating with 300 more inmates than it could hold.

Closer to home, South Africa imitates the same model. Life is no better for the prisoners. HRW estimates that 70-80% of all South African prisoners are sodomized by other inmates even before they are officially charged.

In a post 9/11 world obsessed with surveillance, it would do no harm to reflect on what sort of prison system we want.

Whether it is a small penitentiary population like Mauri-tius or a 2 million strong one like the US, the prison system presents a puzzle that looks unsolvable. Michel Foucault produced a brilliant study of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, describing the perfect prison where there would be virtually no need to control prisoners.

The design, which includes a central tower, surrounded by prison cells, is such that the prisoner cannot see the guards but he/she has the impression of being constantly watched. Without any communication with other inmates, each detainee sees only the tower, which creates an “anxious awareness of being observed”. This feeling turns the prisoner into a passive creature, unwilling to rebel against an invisible, but omnipotent, ‘disinvidualised’ authority.

If Panopticism represents a truly Machiavellian concept, the other end of the spectrum proposes the closing down of all prisons. In the October edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, Loic Wacquant, professor of sociology at the University of California, Berkeley, argued that there is no link between the rate of imprisonment and the level of criminality. He points out that the ‘zero-tolerance’ practised in the US has produced more inmates but has not banished crime. Furthermore, the prison is a place “where the person suffers daily humiliations and violence, breakdown of family and community ties and individual alienation”. He also says that prison usually affects the most economically and socially vulnerable.

<B>A social vacuum cleaner</B>

But where is the middle way? The prison system is gradually failing in Mauritius and elsewhere. A visit at the juvenile detention centre in Beau-Bassin will bear witness to the utterly shameless disregard with which we treat our prisoners. The filth of the children’s clothes, some barely twelve or thirteen, has to raise questions about our very humanity if we can allow this to continue in a society and age that we like to think ‘civilised’. The problem lies in the way we view prison.

Wacquant again brings out an excellent argument; the government likes to lock people in to give the population (the electorate when the general elections are approaching) a feeling that ‘law and order’ is prevailing in society.

However, this was and should never be the aim of prison. “Prison should not be a social vacuum cleaner used to rid us of those left behind by economic transformations,” says Wacquant. Too often, prison is used in this way to rid of those that are left vulnerable by a materialistic society.

It is the way that we see criminality that has to change before we can offer better penitentiary conditions. If we continue to see prison as a punishment, as detention for crime, the ills of society will undoubtedly be replicated inside. Rather, it should be a deterrent and, ultimately, a reformation centre for repeated criminals.

If we are not prepared to allow prisoners to live in dignity and equip them with a chance to reintegrate society after their stay, then our compassion, towards fellow human beings, would have failed us badly.

<B>Diren

VALAYDEN

Outlook Correspondent in Dublin</B>