19
Does the Government plan to modify the rules and regulations so as to prevent
arbitrary censorship?
15. Improving Medical Treatments for Inmates
The Government states that it is improving medical treatments within detention
facilities, for example, by providing yearly health checkups, remote medical
examinations, and medical prisons(para. 180-182).
The Act on the Execution of Criminal Penalties and the Treatment of Inmates
stipulates that inmates shall use internal medical facilities, in principle. In order to
receive treatment in external medical facilities, they have to receive permission from
the head of the facilities(Article 37, 38). According to the 2014 report by the Ministry
of Justice, 36.5% of the inmates have fallen sick over the past five years. There are
128 doctors in detention facilities, as of October 2014, which means that one doctor
treats, on average, 142 patients a day. For the past five years, 105 inmates died due to
acute myocardial infarction and to sudden cardiac deaths among an yearly average of
31,878 inmates in total.
On December 23, 2011 the NHRCK recommended to dispatch full-time
psychiatrists and psychiatric health nurses to improve medical treatment conditions
for mentally-ill inmates in detention facilities and to come up with related process
guidelines. The NHRCK also recommended to provide recurrence prevention
measures regarding a case in which an inmate died of liver disease in 2013 at the
Jeonju Correctional Institution.
Question
What efforts have the Government taken to improve medical treatment conditions
for inmates and what plans does the Government have?