Prison

Today, the overcrowding of prison populations has caused serious problems in all societies so that in many ways undermined the correctional and educational achievements. In many countries of the world, the overcrowding population of prisoners has brought nothing except huge costs, an impediment to the public order of the prison, conflict, riot, strike, etc. It has made the authorities to take steps to reduce the prison population. The prison sentence for any form of criminal behavior that is determined arbitrarily neither based on scientific logic nor on the basis of the personality characteristics of individuals and entities of society, on the one hand, causes the increase of the prison population and represents an ugly face of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the world and, on the other hand, causes the family of prisoners to be wandered and overwhelmed by the effects and consequences of this punishment. It is impossible to deny the prison functions because it has punitive and corrective functions so that multiple objectives can be achieved by its implementation. Therefore, it cannot be ignored totally. Imprisonment is still considered as a solution, and if it turns to be a problem in some cases, it is due to other factors and conditions that need to be addressed and improved. If imprisonment is used logically, then it will be effective and will certainly not be problematic. In particular, it should be emphasized that non-criminal solutions and imprisonment alternatives will be effective when it is used in place. Accordingly, the penal policy in post-revolutionary penal law has contributed to the increased prison population by imposing ineffective and prison-based laws in the general section, and also by increasing the criminalization and determination imprisonment as the dominant type of punishment in the section of general laws defining punishment with increasing crime However, following the problems and corruptions as well as the need for resolving this challenge, the legislature took steps to change its legislative penal policy through the Islamic Penal Code of 2013 in accordance with the inspirations and solutions of international organizations. It resulted in the reduction of imprisonment and consideration of prison as the last punishment.

In American history, the ‘Black body’ has been commodified both during the slavery era and in the contemporary period whereby the private management of prisons has partly resulted to mass Black incarceration. The abolition of slavery some 150 years ago is still fairly recent compared to the 400 years it was practiced: thus some of the heinous treatments by slave owners were carried over into the criminal justice system, causing the police, jury, judges, etc., to treat Black people unequally and unfairly compared to their White counterparts. From the ‘proceedings of the rebellious negroes’ in the slavery era to the racialized media coverages of police brutality against Black people, Black protests, treatment of criminal suspects, etc., the American mass media have been identified as playing a major role in the maintenance of the deep racist structures that perpetuate mass Black incarceration. This paper links up some historical practices against Black people with the contemporary racist practices in order to show that slavery is still functionally alive in America and manifests concretely through the justice system: this paper aims at amplifying the ongoing debates toward obliterating the remnants of slavery in America.

Over the past few years, two events have radically transformed American identity and global perceptions of America with respect to human rights. The first of these is the detention of “enemy combatants” at Guantanamo Bay and the second is the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. This paper considers how Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib have altered the intellectual and popular perceptions of human rights in America and abroad. The paper argues that the very different reactions to these events in the US and abroad suggest a move toward a relativist view of human rights in the US, limited by necessity and legality, but a universalist approach to human rights abroad. Moving toward a common global understanding of necessity and legality is critical to the pursuit of universal human rights. The reactions to Guantanamo indicate a growing acceptance in the United States of a relative conception of human rights. In the winter and spring of 2003, United States military forces at Abu Ghraib prison committed a range of often gruesome violations of Iraqi prisoners.