6.3 Prison Reform

The reform canon: Howard's inspections; Fry's women's wards; the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (1955, revised 2015 as the Nelson Mandela Rules — by name), the Tokyo Rules (1990, non-custodial measures) and the Bangkok Rules (2010, women prisoners) — the international soft-law floor; national prisoners'-rights jurisprudence; and the NGO/monitoring layer (Nepal's OHCHR-era and NHRC prison monitoring; the jail-visit bar of the legal-aid clinics). Reform's agenda: classification and separation (the accused from convicts, juveniles from adults, the sick, the first-timers from the hardened), health and mental care, education and work, contact with family, complaint mechanisms, staff training, and dignity's infrastructure (light, space, sanitation — the overcrowding counters).