The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners were adopted on 30 August 1955 by the United Nations Congress on the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, held at Geneva, and approved by the Economic and Social Council in resolutions of 31 July 1957 and 13 May 1977. The treatment of prisoners is also addressed in the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Although not legally binding, the Minimum Standards provide guidelines for international and domestic law for citizens held in prisons and other forms of custody. The basic principle described in the standards is that "There shall be no discrimination on grounds of race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status".
Part I contains Rules of General Application. It contains standards which set out what is generally accepted as being good principle and practice in the treatment of prisoners and the management of penal institutions. Specifically, it covers issues related to minimum standards of accommodation (rules 9 to 14), personal hygiene (15 and 16), clothing and bedding (17 to 19), food (20), exercise (21), medical services (22 to 26), discipline and punishment (27 to 30), the use of instruments of restraint (33 and 34), complaints (35 and 36), contact with the outside world (37 to 39), the availability of books (40), religion (41 and 42), retention of prisoners' property (43), notification of death, illness, transfer (44), removal of prisoners (45), the quality and training of prison personnel (46 to 54), prison inspections (55).
Part II contains rules applicable to different categories of prisoners including those under sentence. It contains a number of guiding principles (rules 56 to 64). Rule 61 is key to the guiding principles and states: "The treatment of prisoners should emphasize not their exclusion from the community, but their continuing part in it." Part II also covers the treatment (rehabilitation) of prisoners (65 and 66), classification and individualisation (67 to 69), privileges (70), work (71 to 76), education and recreation (77 and 78), social relations and after-care (79 to 81).
Part II also contains rules for prisoners under arrest or awaiting trial (generally referred to as remand), rules for civil prisoners (for countries where local law permits imprisonment for debt, or by order of a court for any other non-criminal process) and rules for persons arrested or detained without charge.
There is also a set of standards referred to as the "Handbook on prisoners with special needs" published in 2009 by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Famous quotes containing the words standard, minimum, rules, treatment and/or prisoners:
“As long as male behavior is taken to be the norm, there can be no serious questioning of male traits and behavior. A norm is by definition a standard for judging; it is not itself subject to judgment.”
—Myriam Miedzian, U.S. author. Boys Will Be Boys, ch. 1 (1991)
“After decades of unappreciated drudgery, American women just don’t do housework any more—that is, beyond the minimum that is required in order to clear a path from the bedroom to the front door so they can get off to work in the mourning.”
—Barbara Ehrenreich (20th century)
“Rules and particular inferences alike are justified by being brought into agreement with each other. A rule is amended if it yields an inference we are unwilling to accept; an inference is rejected if it violates a rule we are unwilling to amend. The process of justification is the delicate one of making mutual adjustments between rules and accepted inferences; and in the agreement achieved lies the only justification needed for either.”
—Nelson Goodman (b. 1906)
“[17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.”
—C. John Sommerville (20th century)
“We are all conceived in close prison; in our mothers’ wombs, we are close prisoners all; when we are born, we are born but to the liberty of the house; prisoners still, though within larger walls; and then all our life is but a going out to the place of execution, to death.”
—John Donne (c. 1572–1631)