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The purpose of the current Administration of Corrections is to commit a person to jail who was given such a sentence from the court and to educate the prisoner to help him to adapt himself to society after he finishes his sentence. In addition, the present decapitation concept follows the principle of education.
A prison the correctional institution's duties are to improve the convict's personality and to re-introduce the prisoners back into the society. Every correctional policy must consider a single convict's personal background and especially one's ability and aptitude so by doing this correction a convict can purify both physically and mentally which helps him more easily join the flow of society. Besides the above conventional definition of today's corrections systems, there seem to be many cracks in the policy that now it now suffers
A prison-escapee Shin Chang-won who was recently place under arrest made the nation to re-think about the country's conditions of correctional institutions. In his diary he mostly pointed out the problems inside the prison and this provide an opportunity to look back at the country's poor prison conditions. Many people who have been released from prison raise their voices about what they underwent in the correctional institution. They alleged encroachment upon person's right and never ending torture from the prison officer. It was not only physical abuse but also a mental abuse that made scars on one's heart never to be closed.
There is a caste system in the prison which is divided into three classes. The people of the first class convicts are those who were in a high statue in the society and mostly who played with the national treasury. This economic offense that put the whole nation into economic crisis and made people hardly able to maintain their lifestyles get increditable treatment in the prison and also there isn't any correctional education system for them. Kim Hyun-chul is a good example of this type. He recently got released from the prison even though he didn't finish his punishment. The power of authority maintains inside the jail and never weakens its power. For the politically related prisoners, there seems no trap. The second class prisoners are the people who have a good family background and the people of the outskirts of society that they have a shield of force.
The weakest power in the prison are the people of the third class. They have nothing but a body to block themselves from torture. In this country a promise of every person's equality in front of the law seems meaningless.
The true side and the side that must be opened to the society is always covered with many walls and never allows people to see.
In 1998, there were many corrections in the correctional law. The Ministry of Justice commented that when a prisoner feels he or she has been violated his or her rights or has any complaints about the treatment in prison, he or she may resort to the petition system. And if details of the infringement on right of prisoner falls under a criminal case, he may personally file a complaint to the related government agencies. But, still there are many hidden problems of the prison that are suspected to violate prisoner's personality.
Korea's correctional institutions are always a few steps behind the democracy. There is a saying that don't hate prisoner's humanity or personality but only discuss and give punishment to the prisoner's sin, person living in this world is equal and there isn't any perfect form to discuss about the correct model of humans. The reason for the existing law is to make this big society more organized and more peaceful and the person who broke the law must examine oneself and should never repeat the sin again and this work should be done in the prison. But the country's obscure jail policy bothers prisoners under correctional education and gives prisoners antipathy.
To provide prisoners with useful information and educational program in part of correction, a TV set is to be installed in every cell by the year 2000. And to make visitation more convenient for family, telephone and fax machines with pre-engagement programs have been introduced at several institutions. But people hesitate to provide prisoners with such good conditions because the law and the policy comments that the prisoners are the people who messed up their roles in society.
Besides many ideas, what is most important is the correction of the prisoner. By teaching evils, prisoners will only learn how to do evil behavior and by teaching good, prisoners will learn good behavior. The correctional institution is not only a place for punishment but also a place for correction.