Incarceration in Kiravia

Incarceration is one form of criminal punishment provided for by the laws of the Kiravian Federacy and its states and provinces. Well over 90% of prisoners in Kiravia are held in the correctional systems of individual provinces and Urom autonomies. The remainder are held in the federal prison system, administered by the Federal Penal Authority, which is subordinate to the Chief Executive for the Justiciary.

POV: You took a colour photo of a marble statue

History

Incarceration per se as an instrument of criminal justice is a relatively new development in Coscivian civilisation, emerging in a recognisible form only during the early modern period. Foundational Coscivian legal sources, such as the Great Law Chant, make no mention of incarceration or detention, which would have been highly impractical in what was at that point still a tribal society. Under the First Three Empires, jails existed in large cities like Coresxrvon, and detention in them is known to have been handed down as a sentence. However, such sentences were generally brief in duration, and most inmates of jails were likely confined for other purposes. Similarly, the fortified astron complexes of the Postclassical Era included holding cells, but these too appear to have been only used for what would now be called administrative detention.

Although there are abundant attestations of punitive forced labour, disciplinary exercises (uriximandon), and physical restraint by premodern Coscivian societies, confinement as an ordinary criminal penalty appears to have been quite unheard of. Philological evidence demonstrates that this posed a problem for Levantine missionaries and early Kiravian churchmen trying to translate the New Testament into High Coscivian, as the closest terms in common currency relating to imprisonment referred more properly to the widespread practice of hostage-taking. Indeed, most post-classical Kiravian communities would have lacked the facilities, resources, and enforcement apparatus to incarcerate convicts for extended periods. Offences that might merit imprisonment in other contemporaneous societies were usually penalised by corporal punishment, banishment, or execution.

The revival of incarceration in Kiravian law came about gradually, beginning in the Viceregal Period and accelerating during the Confederal Era in conjunction with larger socio-political developments such as provincialisation, re-urbanisation, and greater codification of criminal law. The industrial era brought a renewed emphasis on penal labour manifested in workhouses and the katergon.

Legal Basis

The Coscivian legal tradition has long held that sentencing serves three main purposes: To correct behaviour and reform character; to protect society from further harm at the hands of the convicted; and to “satisfy justice” by deterring against criminal behaviour and maintaining the public’s confidence that ill deeds are punished. With regard to incarceration, judges may sentence convicts to one of three types of detention:

Reformative detention - Intended to correct behaviour. Shaftonist philosophy emphasises the role of work, regimen, and discipline in shaping and improving character. As such, reformative detention has long focused on penal labour, strict routines, and physical exercise (sometimes genuinely rehabilitative, more often a useful way to keep prisoners occupied during the day and exhausted during off-hours). Education, religious activities, skill and job training, and prison enterprises have also been incorporated into many reformative detention programmes. During Kirosocialism, ideological instruction and psychiatric treatment were prominent in the reformative detention process, and in post-Kirosocialist times reformatory programmes have incorporated modern behavioural health services, transition assistance, organised sports, community service, and other methods from international rehabilitative justice practice. Reformative sentences range from several months to several (generally less than five) years in duration, though a few are between five and ten years. Juvenile sentences are now considered reformative by default in nearly all provinces, though not by federal courts (which rarely handle juvenile cases). A few provinces, such as Fariva, have abolished any formal distinction between reformative and general detention (see below) and now treat all non-exclusionary detention as reformative in principle. Some provinces and courts have begun to distinguish “substance-rehabilitative detention” (ɣiso-ādamartávix humdur) for certain drug infractions as a subclass of reformative detention or a separate concept entirely.

Exclusionary detention - Intended to isolate the detainee from society in order to protect public safety. Exclusionary detention was rather rare for most of Coscivian and Kiravian history, as its purpose was achieved through banishment or execution instead. The gradual decline of both banishment and capital punishment, as well as the rise of organised crime and political violence, have greatly expanded exclusionary detention. Exclusionary detention is handed down for convicts considered to be dangerous and without realistic prospects for reform. Exclusionary detention programmes focus on securely containing inmates, keeping intra-prison crime and disruption down, and enforcing tight restrictions on contact with the outside world. As such, while some work and organised rehabilitative activities may be available to exclusionary detainees, they are more limited in nature and prisoners spend most of their waking hours in their cells. Exclusionary detainees are usually housed in maximum-security or supermax prisons in either the provincial or federal systems. Exclusionary sentences are long (usually ten years to life), and life sentences are considered exclusionary by default. Petitions for parole of exclusionary detainees are rarely considered and, when considered, usually rejected.

Preventative detention is generally treated as a special form of exclusionary detention by Kiravian jurists.

General detention or Unqualified detention - Intended to “satisfy justice” or “satisfy the law”, without the expectation of behavioural change or reform, but also not to serve a public safety purpose. Those serving time for many misdemeanours (whether violent or nonviolent) and for most nonviolent felonies are sentenced to general detention. For many crimes in many provinces, reformative detention is prescribed for the first offence, while subsequent offences incur general detention. In practice, the differences between general and reformative detention have blurred in recent decades due to rehabilitative trends in penal policy, and general and reformatory detainees often share the same facilities and similar routines. As noted above, some provinces have merged these categories completely. The main practical distinction between the two is that those sentenced to reformatory detention have more opportunities for parole or early release (conditional on good behaviour, work, etc.) than general detainees, whose sentences are more fixed and who are typically paroled for pragmatic reasons (disease control, overcrowding, budget cuts) rather than “on merit”. Historically, those imprisoned for unpaid debt were considered general detainees, and their sentences were tied to repayment of the debt rather than to fixed periods of time. General detention sentences vary widely in length. Essentially all short, non-juvenile sentences (days to months) applied by Kiravian courts are considered general detention. At the other end of the spectrum, statutory minimum sentences for crimes like bank fraud have resulted in century-spanning general detention sentences when multiple counts are committed.

One can also speak of “administrative detention”, applied to persons awaiting trial, held temporarily without charge, held in contempt of court, in transit between facilities, or detained for customs/immigration/maritime law purposes.

Facilities

Kiravia is a large and diverse country, but it is possible to identify several general classes of prisons:

County Jails

By far the most numerous type of incarceration facility, county jails are the first and last stop for the majority of people who enter the Kiravian prison system. They house prisoners held for administrative reasons (contempt of court, pre-trial detention) by the county court, as well as convicts serving reformative or general detention sentences ranging from days to 30-60 months. There is typically one jail per county, but some larger counties have several such facilities, while in more sparsely-populated areas several counties may share a joint regional facility for longer-term inmates. Conditions vary, but shorter sentences and greater availability of activities, outdoor time, and visitors keep intra-prison crime toward the lower end of the scale in small and average-sized counties. Since the end of Kirosocialism, many county jails have been keen adopters of rehabilitative justice initiatives and other penal reforms, though this is not uniform across the country. Some county jails, most notably those in some affluent micropolitan counties in Vôtaska and Intravia, are periodically covered in the news for their dorm-like accommodations and low internal crime rates. However, in many poorer and more remote counties, living conditions for inmates are quite basic and may be unpleasant even for jail. Jails in large, heavily urbanised counties face many of the same challenges as provincial prisons. Most county jails are centred on a single residential building, with some adjoining buildings for special purposes and some secured outdoor spaces, surrounded by high fencing with barbed wire and/or walls. Larger jails are compounds with multiple residential buildings. County jails are broadly medium-security institutions but may have close-security units or outlying minimum-security units.

Provincial Prisons

Provinical (State, Territorial, District, Colonial, etc.) prisons are close-security to high-security facilities holding exclusionary detainees and general detainees serving long sentences. Provincial prisons are tightly enclosed, heavily guarded compounds usually comprising 1-3 large, self-contained residential buildings separated by fenced outdoor yards, which are monitored from guard towers. The architecture, procedures, and régime of provincial prisons is focused on preventing escape and cutting down on violence and disorder by keeping prisoners compartmentalised and minimising contact between inmates. Opportunities for self-improvement, work, and recreation are available, but resources of this kind are more limited in provincial prisons than in correctional settlements and many county jails.

Provincial prisons are typically located in remote, underpopulated areas of their province. This is mainly done to provide jobs in underdeveloped areas, but also makes escape more difficult.

Larger states like Sydona, Kaviska, Devahoma, and Korlēdan also have maximum-security state prisons. Most other provinces maintain maximum-security units within select prisons instead.

Federal Prisons

Federal prisons are similar in construction and management to provincial prisons, but operated by the Federal Penal Authority and ranging from close-security to maximum-security. As most criminal cases in Kiravia are handled by provincial courts, the federal prison system holds fewer inmates. Federal prisons are less crowded than most provincial prisons in industrialised states, but house some of the “worst-of-the-worst” convicts. There are 30 federal prisons, distributed among the various regions of the home islands and overseas territories. Many are located on offshore islands or coastal promontories, or in circumscribed mountain valleys to foil escapes.

The FPA operates two supermax prisons - Ion Xëlkka FP, located on an island off the coast of Ilfenóra State, and McGill Flats FP, located in the middle of a barren plain in the Miradèt Desert in Amóxav Territory. Ion Xëlkka mainly houses extremely violent inmates and serial escapees transferred from other federal prisons, while McGill Flats is used to hold a small but colourful array of dangerous high-profile and politically sensitive convicts, including top organised crime bosses, foreign and domestic terrorists, prolific cybercriminals, traitors, and spies.

The military justice system also operates prison facilities. These are under federal purview but separate from the Federal Penal Authority's system, and conditions in military prisons are more similar to those in provincial prisons. The Kiravian Navy's main onshore brigs are the Fleet Consolidated Prison in County Mirodrin, Eusa and the Fleet Correctional Installation near Tolôn.

Penal Settlements

Provincial Correctional Settlements - Known as katergon, from the Istroyan κάτεργον, provinical correctional settlements are low-security to medium-security facilities laid out as open-plan complexes and surrounded by walls, fences, and guard towers. Katergon comprise multiple barracks, which are locked at night but may be open during the day. Some low-security camps may house prisoners in small multiple-occupant huts or cottages. Correctional settlements are work-oriented and house reformative and general detainees, usually for for 2-5 year terms, during which they participate in agricultural, mining, timber processing, and industrial labour.

Federal Penal Settlements - As above, but operated by the federal authorities. Many federal katergon are located in extremely inhospitable parts of the Federacy, such as far northern Koskenkorva and Lataskia, the Saxalin Islands, the Miradèt Cold Desert, and the Western Highlands. Federal katergon in the Overseas Regions, such as the Atlindarin Katergon in Thýstara, are termed “penal colonies”. Minimum-security facilities for low-risk white-collar criminals are termed “penal camps”.

Diet

On the whole, prison food in Kiravia is regarded by the scholarly community as "bad" and "not good". It is standard Kiravian cuisine stripped down to its bare essentials and usually prepared in a half-assed way. Most facilities serve the standard Occidental three meals a day, though some katergon account for second breakfast. Boiled potato, salt beef or salt pork, rye bread, cabbage, oatmeal or cuckwheat porridge, coffee (sometimes real, sometimes acorn-based), and processed meats such as scrapple are the main staples. Lunch consists almost invariably of soup. In mainstream slang, a soup that is served cool or in which the potato and vegetables have not been thoroughly softened by boiling is known as a æskubilôstum or “jail soup”. County jails tend to rely more heavily on processed food that can be served with minimal on-premises preparation. Food quality and quantity are better in correctional settlements - where prisoners are subject to full-time labour and strenuous exercise - than in prisons, where many wardens have adopted the Daxian practice of keeping inmates lethargic and placid with filling but calorie-poor foods like gelatin.

Kiravian prisons are notable for serving beer to inmates. In prisons, beer rations are issued at suppertime in plastic cups, and in katergon beer may be doled out during the workday. In the winter, katergon in cold regions often allow prisoners a shot of whiskey or brandy in the morning or during outdoor labour. Standard prison beer is a crappy mass-produced lager that is around 4% ABV and tastes like piss.

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