There is increased recognition of prisoners’ rights to healthcare and the right to be protectedagainst inhumane and degrading treatment. A prisoner has a right to the healthcare equivalent of any person in their community. This trend has encouraged many correctionalpolicymakers to engage in efforts to improve the levels of correctional healthcare in thecontext of human rights and to establish international standards of correctional healthcare,such as those cited in ‘Making Standard Work’ and ‘Health in Prisons’. This study compressed the issues of the right to healthcare into four parts and applied to the correctional healthcare system in Korea. In Korea, according to the results of the study,the right to healthcare of inmates in correctional institutions is guaranteed to some extent, but the gap between the normative frame and the reality is prominent. First, in the living conditions at correctional institutions, the problem of overcrowding is remarkably noticeable. With respect to ensuring correctional medical resources, a shortage of medicalpersonnel and the inferior state of the sickrooms that do not meet the criteria were found.Particularly, focusing on outside medical care, the issue of correctional medical expenditurehas been highlighted, due to the continuous increase in medical costs. Finally, the efforts for health promotion and treatment of mental health care are merely formalities. In orderto reduce the gap between international standards and actual conditions of correctionalinstitutions and to promote these rights effectively, close cooperation between the responsiblebodies is required.

This study aims to analyze the characteristics, causes, and context of youth unemployment.This study will focus, in particular, on why youth unemployment needs more attentionthan in any other age group. The young are relatively disadvantaged compared to the middle-aged who enjoy first mover advantage. This is why the segmentation accordingto age group in labor markets is considered a primary issue in social policies, includinglabor market policy. Based on these arguments, this study discusses two major issues. First,based on theoretical discussions regarding labor markets and unemployment, this study will look at some general ideas and particulars that the young unemployed have. Youth unemployment has both ‘general characteristics’, as a sub category to unemployment and‘demographical particularities’ as unemployment issues particular to certain age groups. Second, this study will examine where unemployment among the young in South Koreastands by looking at the current status and structure of the youth labor market in SouthKorea. By doing so, this study will discuss what youth unemployment policies should bepursued both politically and economically, in order to address these issues.

In order for the cultural content industry to prosper, what are needed, above all, are educational and systematic support in environment where creating cultural content is encouraged. The cultural content industry reflects the interaction between art and society.In South Korea, this industry is now at a turning point with the passing of fundamentallaws on cooperatives. This study will analyze the content of these laws on cooperativesand the characteristics of cultural content industry by examining why the cooperativesystem should be introduced. It will also analyze certain functions that cultural contentcooperatives perform and by doing so, will show that the industry can flourish when cooperatives in cultural content sectors are fostered and through this, a stable and sustainable business infrastructure can be created.

With the highest suicide rate among OECD countries, South Korea is facing serious problems regarding social integration. While many previous studies have focused on the meso or micro level factors responsible for suicide, this paper will discuss macro levelchanges affecting modes of solidarity within Korean society. In the 1950s and 1960s, Koreans shared the common goal of rebuilding the nation. Following that, the 1970s and1980s can be viewed as the era of democratization, during which the development discourse and theses on equality predominated in equal parts. Since the mid-1990s, however, South Korea has been facing an unprecedented level of uncertainty. Each shiftin the societal climate has created a different way for citizens to feel a sense of collectivebelonging. It is argued that as we enter an era where individual isolation can only get worse, research on suicide and on social integration in general should take into consideration national historical trends and their impact on individuals.

Asian-Pacific Journal of Social Quality (AJSQ), published since 2014 by the Korean Association of Converging Humanities (KACH), South Korea, is a double-blind peer-reviewed multidisciplinary journal dedicated to social quality studies. AJSQ is published biannually in June and December. Sponsered by the KACH, AJSQ shares its academic goal of promoting interdisciplinary research related to the region of Asia-Pacific, and publishes both articles that stay within such traditional disciplinary or regional boundaries and words that take an interdisciplinary approach to explore the commonalities and contrasts found in Asia-Pacific countries.