Overcrowding in correctional facilities is a chronic issue that has been continuously raised since three or four decades ago, and those problems caused by it can be summed up as five: 1- failure in securing a minimum living space to lead a life worthy of human dignity, and infringement on the basic human rights of inmates; 2- difficult categorized imprisonment and individual treatment, and difficult rehabilitation; 3- inconvenient management and operation of correctional facilities, and growing correctional accidents; 4- surging claims and actions for remedies for violation of rights from inmates; and 5- negative effects of increased correctional workload on prison officers. These are the crucial factors that make it impossible to achieve the correctional goal of social rehabilitation, resulting in correctional administration focusing on strict order and security maintenance, not inmate treatments.
To resolve such problems, this study first reviewed domestic and overseas existing discussions and preceding studies on the concept and causes of overcrowding and solutions in literature. Then, it attempted to find the actual status of overcrowding, the composition of inmates, and clues to resolve the problem of overcrowding, analysing the current state of imprisonment based on the statics compiled by Correctional Services under the Ministry of Justice. Third, this study reviewed the National Human Rights Commission's recommendation decisions and relevant precedents domestic and overseas to find implications and systematic improvement methods at this time ahead of the Constitutional Court's decision on overcrowding. Lastly, this study presented problems and issues in correctional administration from meetings with correctional practices and academic experts to be used as data for finding methods to resolve overcrowding.
Correctional facilities themselves have no authority to control the number of inmates, and it is necessary to approach and analyse the operation of the overall criminal justice system by stages, and find measures at each stage. For this, ‘entrance strategies’ include active use of non-custodial based punishments, such as probation and fines. ‘Exit strategies’ include active use by the Ministry of Justice of the parole system at the stage of execution, reducing the number of arrests and pre-trial detentions by making prosecutors and courts conduct investigations and judgments without detention to the extent possible to control an increase in the number of pre-trial detainees, active use of the bail system, and establishment of additional detention centers.