II.  Outsourcing of Correctional Services

   1.  Introduction

All prisoners will eventually go back to society as our neighbors. Therefore, correction and rehabilitation should be concerned not only with the correctional authorities but also with the society as a whole.  Accordingly corrections need help of outside to promote the treatment of inmates and enhance the rehabilitation of inmates.

It has become a common sense for the public to take part, more or less, in correctional activities.  The correctional authorities cannot do without supports from the society. In that sense, they are opening correctional institutions wider to the public in an effort to wipe out negative image of the people on correctional services and to encourage them to actively participate in correctional activities. 

Three volunteer-based committees were set up for the purpose of educating and reforming prisoners, which are the Correctional Committee, Education Committee and the Religious Committee. 

As a whole, it can be said that currently correctional facilities are not separated from the society, and are closely related to the public and private companies in terms of education, prison industry, and vocational training. Especially, it is very important for correctional institutions to purchase the daily necessities and food for prisoners, and to operate the prison industry and vocational training. In this regard, private companies are strongly associated with the correctional facilities. A lot of private companies also are participating in many correctional activities, and their supports play important roles in educating and rehabilitating prisoners.

   The maximization of private company's participation in corrections would be to operate private prisons. In Korea, the Establishment and Management of Private Prison Law was enacted in January 2000.  The Ministry of Justice of Korea selected one Group as trustee of establishing a private prison in May 2002. It is expected that the Group will open a private prison in 2005. 

   2. Participation of Outside Company in Supply of Goods to Prison

The goods needed in correctional institutions are supplied by the contract with outside companies, procurement of government, purchase of prison industrial goods, and a competitive bid. In requesting of procurement goods, an appropriate correctional institution completes an order form of goods and sends it to the central government storage, while in purchasing prison industrial goods, it completes and sends an order form to the concerned prison. 

Except procurement goods and prison industrial products, the correctional authorities select the most appropriate company through the open bit. In case of low-priced goods, they are supplied by a discretionary contract with a private company.

Rice, staple food of inmates, is supplied by central government storage, however, inmate necessities such as shoes, clothes, and beddings are largely furnished by prison industrial goods. Meanwhile, some of subsidiary foods are supplied by agricultural production in correctional institutions.  However, in case that the supply is impossible or difficult by the lack of institutional productions, private companies supply the foods.  

 3. Medical Service from Outside Hospital

 Every correctional institution sets up a Medical Care Section to offer health care service to inmates. At present, 146 medical officers who comprises of medical doctors, nurses and pharmacists are working for the physical checkup of inmates and the medical treatment of inmates. 

In case of emergency or special diseases, the inmates are to be sent to outside hospitals to get a better medical treatment. To this purpose, every correctional institution already contracted with outside hospitals near the institution. As of June 2002, the number of those contracted hospitals reached 225.

4. Private Company's Participation in Prison Industry

   As mentioned before, prison industry is divided into the Institution-Run Industry, the Consignment Industry, and the Contract Industry (Work-Release Industry). The Contract and the Consignment Industries are operated, being closely related to the outside private companies. In terms of the Institution-Run Industry within the Prison Industry Special Budget, correctional institutions buy machineries and resources needed for institutional work. Prisoners who are working with thus purchased materials produce goods and they are responsible for selling those goods. The correctional authorities operate 17 kinds of Institution-Run Industries such as carpentry, printing, tailoring, shoemaking, and so on. 

   In Consignment Industry, outside companies supply machineries or resources and the correctional institutions offer prisoners' labor. The prisoners working for Consignment Industry produce goods or process the worked material with the supplies of the outside companies. In reward of the prisoners' work, the correctional authorities get the money and reserve it in the Prison Industry Special Account. With regard to the Consignment Industry, at the end of June 2002, 31 correctional institutions contracted with 107 private companies and produce 10 kinds of goods such as leather bag, album, artificial flowers, desk for computer, and so on.

   Through Work-Release Industry, prisoners are supposed to cultivate an adaptive ability to society and to prepare the livelihood after release, thus contributing to protection of prisoners from committing crimes again after release. A certified correctional institution selects example prisoners and let them commute to and work at the outside companies.

   Since October 1991, the number of work-release prisoners have increased and reached 1,100 in 26 correctional institutions at the end of June 1997. According to the analysis of the result of work-release program in Korea, work-release prisoners, and their family, relevant companies, the media, and the public are all in favor of the program.  Especially, work-release prisoners show the strong sense of self-reformation. The correctional authorities are going to make the program diverse and to multiply the number of prisoners who can be eligible to participate in the program. 

   The goods produced by work-release program include electric parts, leather-bag, glove, handcraft art, and etc. The prisoner joining in a work-release program receives the remuneration equivalent to about 70% of the salary of an average civilian laborer, and saves the money that will be used by prisoners to make resettlements outside the wall after release.  However, most kinds of work assigned by Consignment or Work-Release Industry are so simple that prisoners are difficult to get a job after release while industrial technologies outside the prison are developing very rapidly.  As of the end of the end of June 2002, 1,510 inmates participated in the work release program in 28 correctional institutions and commuted 62 private companies.

   5. Activities of Voluntary Members for the Rehabilitation of Inmates

A.     Activities of Correctional Voluntary Members

As mentioned earlier, a lot of voluntary citizens participate in the rehabilitation of inmates. Without their support, the correctional institutions’ effort to rehabilitate inmate would not make desirable result. Accordingly the Correction Bureau appoints voluntary citizens as Correctional Members to get their support. Also, it established Central Committee of Correctional Members in November 1998 to set up a nation-wide supporting system. As of the end of 2001, 4,522 correctional members worked for the rehabilitation of inmates at their neighboring local correctional institutions. 

Correctional Voluntary Members are classified in three groups, that is, Correctional Members, Religious Members and Education Members. Correctional Members are mainly taking charge of counseling, rehabilitative performances, and sisterhood for inmates. Religious Members encourage inmates to purify their minds through various kinds of religious activities.  Meanwhile, Education Members mainly focus on teaching academic subject or technical skills like information technology for inmates.  The current status of Correctional Voluntary Members is as follows;

� Composition of Correctional Members

� Composition of Religious Members

� Composition of Education Members

B. Participation in the Education of IT and Foreign Languages

Facing the Information Society of 21^st century, correctional institutions have given inmates opportunities to learn Information Technology.  To this end, they have made contracts with 54 IT-related colleges and 78 professors from those colleges assist the IT Learning Class at local correctional institutions. Also, 54 teachers including 3 native speakers are voluntarily serving as teachers at the Foreign Language Classes. They teach foreign languages such as English, Chinese and Japanese to inmates in several correctional institutions.

Owing to their support, inmates could get good marks at the TOEFL Test. It appeared that the average mark of those inmates was higher than that of university students.  Also many inmates who take the IT-related vocational training course acquire various kinds of certificates in the field of Information Technology such as PC repair, Word Processing, Animation, and etc. In 2002, up to now, 3,183 inmates obtained those certificates, while 2,471 did in 2001.

C.     Citizens’Participation in Committee Activity

Correctional Institutions operate many kinds of committees to develop correctional administration and promote the guarantee of inmates’ human rights.  In central organization, professors, lawyers and specialists in correctional administration participate in the activities of the Parole Examination Committee and the Dietary Administration Committee. Also, in local institutions, specialists in correctional administration and the Correctional Members positively participate in the activities of the Furlough Screening Committee, the Disciplinary Committee, and etc. In recent years, their activities have contributed to the development of correctional administration and to the promotion of inmate human rights as well with their civilian or non-governmental view regarding correctional administration.

   6. Privatization of Prison

In recent years, the Correction Bureau has tried to introduce a private prison in order to resolve overcrowding, reduce national finance, and introduce various creative methods for the better treatment of inmates from private sector. As a result, “the Establishment and Management of Private Prison Act” was enacted in January 2000 and its Enforcement Regulation and Rules were legislated in May 2001, which means the legal foundation for introducing private prison into our correctional system.

Furthermore, the Ministry of Justice made a presentation for the public regarding the establishment and management of Private Prison in August 2001. The Ministry of Justice constituted the “Trustee Selection Examination Committee for Managing Private Prison” and appointed a Protestant group named “Agape Foundation” as the trustee in May 2002. By the end of this year, the Ministry of Justice will contact with the Group and decide conditions necessary to constructing and managing the private prison. It is expected that the group will open a private prison by 2005.