Last update - 00:00 28/03/2007
Report: 60 suicides in detention centers over past 7 years
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
According to a report issued by the Israel Bar Association's committee overseeing detention centers, over the past seven years, more than 60 detainees committed suicide while in remand.
The figure presented in the report does not include failed suicide attempts.
"The criminal justice system in Israel does not want offenders to die," the committee chairman, Attorney Benny Steinberg, wrote in the report. "Nonetheless, it leads to the death of suspects and detainees at a frequency that cannot be ignored, even if the death is ultimately self-inflicted."
The report determines that there is no mental health system in detention centers, and detainees have accessibility difficulties in reaching their attorneys, which increases the risk of suicide.
The report states that between 2000 and 2005, approximately 50 detainees committed suicide while in remand, and in the past seven years, the average suicide rate was about nine detainees per year.
The report also states that there has been no improvement in medical care at the centers since the previous report came out last year, and that no mental health services are available. The exception to the latter is the Abu Kabir Detention Center, at which a psychiatrist visits for several hours three times a week.
The bar association recommended that social workers be employed at police stations to treat drug addicts and the mentally ill, to curb the risk of suicide.
The report also addresses detention conditions at 18 detention centers throughout Isreal. The main problems found were that centers were overcrowded and that suspects' general rights were not strictly adhered to.
In several facilities, eight to 10 detainees were held in cells allowing less than two square meters per detainee. In western Europe, personal space per detainee ranges from six to ten square meters.
Sanitary conditions were also found to be problematic, with facilities not adhering to the order to separate showers from toilets in order to preserve maximum hygiene and privacy conditions.
In some instance, not only is there no barrier between shower and toilet, but the shower head is actually above the toilet hole.
Many cells also lack proper ventilation and either lack windows or have windows that are completely airtight.