Criminal Justice and Human Rights: A Discussion of Custodial Violence, Pretrial Detention and Capital punishment

Abstract

The interaction between criminal justice systems and basic human rights poses one of the greatest challenges in modern legal approach, especially with regards to safeguarding human dignity into the punitive means. This paper looks at three critical areas in which the working realities of criminal justice often collide with accepted human rights standards: custodial violence/abuses of dignity, prolonged pre-trial detentions and unreasonable delays in the administration of justice, and the death penalty in the context of the right to life. Custodial violence constitutes a serious attack on the inherent dignity of the individuals within criminal justice system. However, cases of torture and physical and psychological intimidation continue to be recorded in prisons across the world despite constitutional protection or other international principles relating to human rights. This tendency erodes the point that human dignity can never be used to remove any human being no matter whether the criminal allegations against them or the fact that they are criminally convicted. The discussion shows that not only does custodial violence denies individual rights, but it alienates the population and undermines the status of the judicial institutions and suffers an institutional brutality syndrome. Another substantial human rights concern is the problem of under trial prisoners and lengthy delays of receiving justice cooked. Unreasonably lengthy pre-trial detention impairs the presumption of guilt and the right to timely trial of a case, presenting the paradox where a person is punished before his or her guilt is proved. Data shows that in most courts, the number of under sentenced suspects is higher than the convicted offenders bringing into perspective the inefficiencies of the system that converts detention into effective punishment. The delays will have a disproportionate impact on disadvantaged groups who cannot provide themselves with decent legal assistance, which further aggravates social inequalities in the justice system. Capital punishment is perhaps one of the most controversial combinations of criminal justice and the rights theme, and questions directly the right to life. The following debates focus on whether the issue of state-sanctioned killing can ever align with human rights, especially with the concerted number of wrongful convictions being recorded as well as the irreversibility of capital punishment execution. The discussion focuses on developing international norms, the elements of arbitrariness in working with death penalty, and the increasing world consensus about abolition. It adopts a multidisciplinary approach in combining a legal analysis, human rights jurisdiction and the empirical data whether these criminal justice practices suit the international human rights norms or not. Findings show that structural reforms towards bringing criminal justice systems in line with human rights obligations need to be put in place, which include more rigour in oversight mechanisms, judicial transformation to speed-up trials and comprehensive back-up to capital punishment.

This study finds that sustainable reform of criminal justice must recognize the conflict that exists between these aims of punitive goals and human rights protections. There is a need to deal with the causes of the problems, not with mere incidents, a focus should be put on rehabilitation instead of focusing on retribution, and at the same time, not compromise safety for the population. Representing a growing body of evidence about criminal justice reform, the findings can serve as policy guidance to achieve human rights-conforming criminal justice systems.