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Heroic prison wardens

Posted August. 19, 2012 22:38,   

한국어

“If you keep to yourself that there are three more torture investigators, I’ll guarantee your family’s household income. Otherwise, you won`t be safe.” In March 1987, a senior police officer in Korea presented a bank account statement of 100 million won (88,100 U.S. dollars) to persuade two officers arrested for torturing to death Park Jong Cheol, a college student who took part in pro-democracy protests. A witness to this was An You, a police lieutenant at Yeongdeungpo Prison. He told of this to former Rep. Lee Bu-young, who was in prison, and Lee wrote a letter to Han Jae-dong, a prison officer. The letter was eventually delivered to the Catholic Priests’ Association for Justice. The exposure of the plot on May 18, 1987, expedited the end of the nation`s dictatorial government.

Many prison officers contributed to democratization, and are called “democratic wardens.” Poet Kim Ji-ha’s “Declaration of Conscience” in 1975 was known to the world as warden Jeon Byeong-yong brought the document out of prison. Kim said the Korean Central Intelligence Agency branded him a communist, prompting famous intellectuals across the world including Jean-Paul Sartre and Jurgen Habermas to support him. Korean intelligence then faced global criticism. Czech journalist Julius Fučik’s “Report from the Gallows” would never have been known to the world without the courageous warden, who took Fučik’s writing out of prison page by page.

Other wardens have dared to stick up for justice. One at Seoul Detention Center is under investigation for leaking updates on the probes into savings banks to Park Jie-won, a leading member of the main opposition Democratic United Party. The warden delivered what Solomon Savings Bank Chairman Yim Seok and former Bohae Mutual Savings Bank President Oh Mun-cheol said in questioning to prosecutors. This must have been necessary for Park, who is also under investigation for allegedly taking 80 million won (70,480 dollars) in bribes from them.

Wardens are the forefront of law enforcement. Death row inmates spend their remaining time with them. Correction is straightening crooked and misguided people. People might expect that the job of warden is unpopular but this is not so. The applicant-to-job opening ratio was 24:1 among men, and 55:1 among women last year. Whether they are thoroughly screened for sense of duty or justice and for awareness of human rights is doubtful.

City Desk Reporter Shin Gwang-yeong (neo@donga.com)