According to the report, tighter enforcement against drug and fraud offences has driven a rapid rise in the prison population. Some facilities are close to 60% over capacity, and cases of inmates sleeping in work areas have been reported.

Why numbers rose

The immediate cause is intensified enforcement against narcotics and fraud. More arrests produce more convictions, and the longer the sentences, the more the population accumulates. Criminal policy tightening surfaces as pressure on corrections facilities with a lag of several years.

Overcrowding translates into hygiene and safety problems, because infectious-disease control, rehabilitation programming and custodial staffing are all designed around capacity. Sleeping in workshops is one visible sign that the design has broken down.

The front-door, back-door approach

The ministry's approach runs in two directions. The front door means reducing admissions — alternative dispositions, expanded community-based supervision, and more non-custodial handling of minor offences. The back door means earlier release, with parole criteria and review procedures under consideration.

The approach draws objections: questions of proportionality in punishment, and concern that the burden of managing reoffending shifts to the community. A United Daily News editorial argued that law without proportionality slides toward populist governance.

Hwagyo Sibo takes no position on which policy is correct. The established fact is plain enough: a population running nearly 60% above capacity has already reached the limits of manageability, whatever the policy debate.