SEOUL– The Supreme Court has ruled that prison cells with less than two square meters of floor space per person violate human dignity and ordered the state to pay compensation to prisoners who suffered such conditions for the first time, officials said Friday.
Two former inmates, who served prison terms between 2008 and 2011, filed a compensation suit against the government, arguing that overcrowded prison conditions caused them physical and mental pain.
A lower court dismissed the claims in 2014, but a higher court overturned the ruling and ordered the government to pay compensation, and the Supreme Court finalized the ruling Thursday.
The government was ordered to pay 1.5 million won (US$1,130) to the first plaintiff, who spent 186 days in a cell smaller than two square meters, and 3 million to the second plaintiff who spent 323 days.
“It is a violation of human dignity and value when the government jails a certain number of inmates at correctional facilities that do not have necessary and basic facilities needed for human survival,” the court said in a ruling.
The court determined that the personal space allocated to the two had fallen below the required minimum standard of two square meters throughout a certain period of detention.
Source: Yonhap News Agency