admin‘Jailbreaker’ Shin Chang-won, 56, has been taken to a hospital for treatment after attempting to commit suicide in prison yet again.
On Feb. 22, the Ministry of Justice said that at 8 p.m. the previous night, a correctional officer on patrol at Daejeon Prison found Shin Chang-won lying in his cell after attempting to commit suicide.
Rushed to a general hospital in Daejeon in an unconscious state, Shin regained consciousness later in the day and is reportedly in non-life-threatening condition.
Shin was arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in March 1989 for breaking into a house in Donam-dong, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul, and killing the homeowner after robbing him of about 30 million won in cash.
In January 1997, eight years into his sentence, he broke out of Busan Prison by tearing off the bars of his cell’s bathroom and went on a two-and-a-half-year escape before being caught and re-incarcerated in 1999.
He has been in solitary confinement for more than 20 years and has received a “special sign” through CCTV.
Shin Chang-won (Photo: Yonhap)
In 2011, Shin was also hospitalized for attempting to commit suicide in North Gyeongsang Province prison.
In its own investigation into why he made this choice, the prison said, “He was shocked by the extreme choice of Mr. Kim Mo, the prison’s weapons officer, and impulsively made the choice due to his psychological change following his father’s death.”
Shin Chang-won also said during the investigation, “I was impulsive. I don’t know why I did it. It won’t happen again. I’m sorry.”
At the time, a letter written by Shin to Moon Sung-ho, head of the Autonomous Police Research Center, was also released.
“I have not been punished for 10 years and three months, and I have never harmed anyone or tried to escape, but I have been in solitary confinement for 10 years and five months,” he wrote, adding, “I don’t know why I have to wear handcuffs and am forbidden to watch TV.”
“I have seen many prisoners with abnormal behavior in strict isolation, and I myself have experienced dozens of dangerous breakdowns and hundreds of breaking points in psychiatric treatment for nightmares, depressive disorders, and insomnia,” he said, alluding to his메이저사이트 extreme choice, “because humans are bound to take some form of extreme action when they exceed the breaking point.”
Later transferred to Gwangju Prison, Shin Chang-won filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission in May 2019, stating that “even defecating in the bathroom is exposed through CCTV,” and that “it is unjust to continue surveillance through electronic video equipment for more than 20 years.”
The NHRC found that the use of solitary confinement and CCTV surveillance greatly restricted his right to privacy and freedom guaranteed by the Constitution and recommended improvements to the Gwangju Regional Correctional Institution and the Minister of Justice.