`Prison Break Occurs Every Year
By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter
``Prison break'' takes place not only in an American television series, but on average once a year in Korea.
Correctional centers in Korea have seen continuing prison breaking and violence among inmates, according to the Ministry of Justice Thursday.
Since 2002, prison or lockup escapes have occurred every year _ 10 jailbreaks at nine prisons nationwide. Seongdong Detention Center in eastern Seoul had two escapes in 2003 and 2005.
In 2005, inmates broke out of four lockups and prisons. One of the escapees was Lee Nak-song, who had escaped from Cheongsong Prison in North Gyeongsang Province in April and was caught 18 months later.
It was also found that an inmate escaped from Pohang Prison in North Gyeongsang Province this year. The prison boasted of its high-tech unmanned guard system when it opened last November.
Although they failed to escape, 29 inmates have received punishment, such as solitary confinement, for making tools for jailbreak or destroying surveillance facilities since 2005.
The report also has shown that crimes including violence, sexual assault and even murder, are being committed in prisons.
In 2006 alone, 2,700 prisoners were punished for beating up other inmates, while 298 assaulted correctional officers. More than 12,000 inmates, about a quarter of the nation's total of 47,000 prisoners, received penalties _ ranging from a warning to solitary confinement _ for various troubles in that year.
In 2004, a prisoner beat a correctional officer to death with a weapon he had hidden, while one inmate sexually assaulted a female officer in 2005. Early 2006, a female inmate committed suicide after suffering habitual sexual harassment from a male officer.
The number of prisoners committing suicide is also growing, from eight people in 2002 to 17 last year, totaling 69 since 2002.
Some people have even been found to disguise themselves as criminals. In April, a man served 10 days at Incheon Detention Center on behalf of a real criminal.
Unlike the serial drama ``Prison Break,'' Korean inmates are not confined together with foreign prisoners.
Foreigners under trial here are detained in separate cells from Koreans, and those sentenced are held in Daejon Prison and Cheonan Prison, which have foreigner-only prison buildings. A total of 938 foreigners have been committed to lockups and jails as of last July.