Correctional system of Caphiria

The correctional system of Caphiria (including prisons) is part of the criminal justice system of Caphiria. The correctional system operates under the Department of Incarceration, part of the Ministry of Justice. The Department of Incarceration have the primary role, responsibility and authority to change prison laws, rules and regulations.The correctional system is split between an administrative detention system and a judicial incarceration system, each with its own types of staff, facilities, and procedures.

Caphirian law makes a legal distinction between the concepts of detainment, indictment, and imprisonment. As such, the balance of power is spread very evenly across the correctional system and the legal system, and the legal authority across the various departments is very clear.

Administrative detention system

The administrative detention system is composed of public security departments at the township, regional, and provincial levels of Caphiria. These public security departments can issue detention orders and hold detainees at their own detention centers for a maximum of 90 days. There are two types of legal detainment: administrative and compulsory.

The Urban Cohort oversees the public security departments across Caphiria and trains the public security officers (Oesitior). Despite being trained by the IPF, an Oesitior does not possess the same authority as a main field agent (Vigilum); the most important distinction being public security officers do not have the power to arrest.

An Oesitior can summon a civilian for investigative purposes, and can use force if the civilian refuses to cooperate, and when approved by a superior officer. Caphirian law states Oesitiors can not question citizens on authorized grounds more than eight hours, unless the citizen has violation that could result in administrative detention, in which case, the questioning could be extended to 24 hours. Caphirian law also states public security officers can not question someone for more than twelve hours, unless that someone is a major suspect of a crime, in which case it could be extended to twenty four hours. If an Oesitior found enough evidence for a crime, they can submit it to the Ministry of Justice (or more commonly, passing it through the IPF) to ask permission from a Procurator for an arrest, or if there is limited evidence or considered misdemeanor, they can impose administrative detention for up to fourteen days.

Administrative detention

The most common type of detention, administrative detention, is for misdemeanors in accordance with the law for up to fifteen days or thirty days for multiple misdemeanors. Teenagers of sixteen years old or younger, and women who are pregnant or feeding an infant less than one years old are exempt. Teenagers aged fifteen to seventeen are exempt from their first misdemeanor. Due to Caphiria's lack of formal juvenile facilities, administrative detention centers are used in place for juvenile offenders.

Compulsory rehabilitation

Compulsory rehabilitation is typically imposed on drug addicts who refuse or failed community rehabilitation, or who began to reuse after previous community rehabilitation for a duration of two years ordinarily. As with administrative detention, local public security departments issue the order for compulsory rehabilitation. Rehabilitation centers are often run by the public security departments and, in some places, in cooperation with public health departments. Compulsory rehabilitation may also be used as a form of treatment for other types of addiction or mental health illness. Compulsory rehabilitation programs are in three month "blocks", which guides prisoners in “structured activities” to help prisoners with alcoholism, drug abuse, and mental illness through individual and group therapy.

Judicial incarceration system

The incarceration system's main responsibilities are to ensure the completion of criminal penalties by convicted persons. The management and administration of prisons and adjacent correctional institutions are operated by the Department of Incarceration, which also ensures the protection of the prisoners’ physical well-being and rights under the Caphirian government. The incarceration system is intended to resocialize, reform, and rehabilitate offenders. As the principal law enforcement agency, the IPF is responsible for responding to calls for service, investigating criminal activity, and regularly patrolling high-crime areas.

There are three types of "incarceration institutions" operated by the Department of Incarceration: open prisons, prisons, and provincial prisons.

The Department of Incarceration maintains a local head office in each province. There, a prison service department controls the organization of the prison service, personnel matters, basic and advanced training for prison staff, budgets, construction, cooperation in prison service legislation, the employment of prisoners, and vocational training and education for prisoners. It also reviews petitions and complaints and its representatives visit and inspect the prisons regularly.

The incarceration system designates each facility under one of several security levels. Most prisons and provincial prisons where offenders serve sentences of less than 24 months, or are held in pre-trial and pre-sentence custody, have cells at different security levels within the same facility.

Security levels

Minimum Security

• An institution where the perimeter is defined but usually there are no walls or fences.
• There are no armed correctional officers, no towers or no razor wire.
• Restrictions on movement, association and privileges are minimal.
• Inmates are non-violent and pose very limited risk to the safety of the community. Many are on work-release programs that allow them to hold jobs during the day.
• Inmates show the desire and ability to get along responsibly with fellow inmates with little or no supervision.

Medium Security

• These institutions are usually surrounded by chain-link fences topped with razor wire. Firearms are present but not normally deployed within the perimeter.
• Inmates pose a risk to the safety of the community. They are contained in an environment which promotes and tests socially acceptable behaviour.
• Inmates are expected to act responsibly under regular and often direct supervision and participate in their correctional program plans.
• Many of these institutions have training centres and a variety of educational and treatment facilities.

Maximum Security

• Maximum-security facilities are surrounded by high (25 feet) walls or fences with guard towers in strategic positions and electronic systems that ensure any movement within the perimeter is detected.
• Correctional officers in the towers are supplied with firearms and there are additional locked caches of firearms within the institutions in the event of a serious disturbance.
• Various parts of the facility are separated by locked gates, fences and walls. Inmate movement, association and privileges are strictly controlled because inmates pose a serious risk to staff, other offenders and the community.
• Inmates are expected to interact effectively with other individuals and in highly structured groups such as in educational and treatment programs and skills development programs.
• Some inmates live in segregation units, due either to behavioural problems or out of concern that they will be harmed by other inmates, usually as a result of their crimes.

Special Security

• These facilities provide the highest level of prison security to hold those considered the most dangerous inmates, as well as inmates that have been deemed too high-profile or too great a national security risk for a normal prison.
• Inmates are implanted with a microchip which features GPS tracking and adaptive biometric systems which provide real-time updates on an inmate's biophysical health
• Inmates are subjected to forced labor, often under harsh and violent conditions.
• Female prisoners are to be held in separate facilities where they will be watched by female officers, male officers are generally not allowed in these facilities and when they need to meet with a prisoner for official purposes, they must be accompanied by a female officer.
• Inmates are afforded two opportunities per year to appeal to be moved out of a SS facility and into a Maximum-security level

Prisons

Open prison

Open prisons are the most common and low-level type of prison in the Imperium. Criminals who have never been imprisoned (or were imprisoned for a maximum of three months) are generally assigned to open prisons. Prisoners are able to complete their sentence with minimal supervision and perimeter security and are often not locked up in their prison cells. However, prisoners in open prisons do not have complete freedom and are only allowed to leave the premises for specific purposes, such as going to an outside job or scheduled home visits.

Prisoners in open prisons are considered to pose little physical risk to the public and are mainly non-violent criminals. Minimum security prisoners live in less-secure dormitories, which are regularly patrolled by correctional officers. Open prisons have communal showers, toilets, and sinks. An open prison generally has a single fence that is watched, but not patrolled, by armed guards. At facilities in very remote and rural areas, there may be no fence at all.

Open prisons operate in accordance with rehabilitation methodology rather than punishment; well behaved prisoners are allowed short home visits for a set number of hours a week and prisoners coming to the end of their sentence are sometimes downgraded from higher-tiered prisons to open prisons towards the end of their sentence. Open prisons typically contain inmates without advanced criminal inclination and who do not have sentences longer than 2 years.

Prison

Prisons are usually large in size and are headed by a warden and few deputies, with a team of police from the Department of Incarceration. Female prisoners and juvenile offenders are held in separate facilities other than male adult prisoners. Typical prisons contain those convicted of minor offences and who are serving shorter sentences no more than a few years in length. Prisoners sleep in cells that fit four with lockers to store their possessions, with each cell having shared showers, toilets and sinks.

Most convicts engage in labor, for which a small stipend is set aside for use on release. Under a system stressing incentives, prisoners are initially assigned to community cells, then earn better quarters and additional privileges based on their good behavior. Cells are locked at night with one or more correctional officers supervising. There is less supervision over the internal movements of prisoners. The perimeter is generally double fenced and regularly patrolled. Prisoners are provided multiple forms of education including vocational, life skills, basic education, healthy living, and technology education. The average sentence served in a prison is between 3 and 10 years.

Provincial prison

Provincial prisons are run by the provincial offices of the Department of Incarceration and are for prisoners sentenced to imprisonment for a long period (more than 10 years) convicted of offences such as murder, manslaughter, terrorism, rape, wounding with intent, robbery, serious firearm and explosives offences, offences against the state, those sentenced under the Official Secrets Act, or any attempts of those offences. In a provincial prison, all prisoners have individual cells with sliding doors controlled from a secure remote control station. Prisoners are allowed out of their cells for 8 hours per day to preserve a sense of normalcy. When out of their cells, prisoners remain in the cell block or an exterior cage. Movement out of the cell block or "pod" is tightly restricted using restraints and escorts by correctional officers. As with general prisons, provincial prisons are offered access to education, workshops, gyms, and healthcare.

Provincial prisons have a penal labor system that is regulated through the Department of Incarceration (with oversight from the Ministry of Justice). While inmates do not earn a competitive wage, the income they do make goes towards a "pension" of sorts that is drawable upon release from prison. Additionally, provincial prisons use a point-based system to evaluate the behavior of the prisoners. The judge for a commutation trial will consider the labor record as evidence for good behavior and may receive extra compensation based on the extra points they have. These points are in turn used to upgrade and improve the inmate's general living condition, such as being able to use the Internet or have a larger cell.

See also

See also: Court system of Caphiria and Judiciary of Caphiria