"Give me the phone number of U.S. President Donald Trump." "Provide Chuncheon dakgalbi." "Provide Pepero."
These are actual administrative appeals filed by an inmate against prison wardens.
According to data obtained from the Ministry of Justice by Representative Park Kyun-taek of the Democratic Party of Korea, an inmate identified as A, who is incarcerated on charges including injury resulting from aggravated confinement and the production and distribution of sexually explicit material involving children and teenagers, has repeatedly filed administrative appeals against correctional authorities since 2023.
In October 2024, A filed an appeal against the warden of Hongseong Correctional Institution, demanding the revocation of the decision of "non-existence of U.S. President Donald Trump's phone number."
A month later, A filed a claim against the warden of Chuncheon Correctional Institution to "fulfill the obligation to provide Chuncheon dakgalbi," and against the warden of Seoul Detention Center to "fulfill the obligation to provide Pepero."
In December of the same year, A also filed a claim against the warden of Seoul Detention Center for the "revocation of the resolution demanding the lifting of martial law."
All of these claims were dismissed.
The total number of administrative appeals filed by inmate A alone from 2023 until last year reached a staggering 975.
Among them, 294 were voluntarily withdrawn, 170 were rejected, and 495 were dismissed.
The issue is that such administrative appeals are not limited to just one inmate.
Administrative appeals and lawsuits filed by inmates surged from 382 cases in 2022 to 610 in 2023, and 1,191 in 2024.
Last year also saw 1,060 cases filed, and as of August this year, the number reached 707.
Administrative appeals are a system designed to protect the rights of citizens from illegal or unfair administrative dispositions.
They are characterized by costing no additional fees and having relatively simple procedures.
However, out of the administrative appeals filed by inmates since 2022, only 5 cases were actually accepted.
Over 30 percent of the cases were voluntarily withdrawn by the applicants themselves.
Criminal complaints and accusations against correctional officers are also continuing.
From 2022 to August of this year, complaints and accusations filed against correctional officers reached 3,114 cases, involving 6,331 accused officers.
Representative Park Kyun-taek pointed out that while legitimate opportunities for inmates to seek remedies for their rights must be guaranteed, it is necessary to review criteria to swiftly filter out identical or repetitive claims and claims unrelated to the purpose of rights remedies, as well as measures to restrict habitual abuse.
Reported by Kim Minjeong | Video by Lee Yujin | Graphics by Yook Do-hyun | Produced by SBS Digital News
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