Last update - 00:00 07/06/2007
Abandoned behind bars
By Haaretz Editorial
The Israel Prisons Service (IPS) is allowing prisoners to study and prepare for their matriculation exams. As was reported earlier this week, some of them pass the tests with flying colors. This is happy news indeed, especially because most prisoner rehabilitation programs initiated by various experts to be implemented with the government ministries have suffered drastic cutbacks in recent years.
Acquiring an education is a tested means of rehabilitation if the prisoners are attended to after their release through a proper rehabilitation framework. But the good news and news of physical renovations at several other prisons pale in comparison to the severe malfunctions recently revealed in the public defender's latest report on conditions in prisons and detention facilities. The defender's office found grave omissions in all the facilities it had inspected.
Anyone familiar with the conditions at the detention facilities (especially those next to courts) would not be surprised by the report. But even those familiar with the situation would find it hard not to be shocked by the descriptions in the document's 60-odd pages.
Among other malfunctions, the report points to the violation of juvenile detainees' rights, intolerably crowded conditions in cells (which violates the regulation that no more than four beds are to be placed in a single cell), difficult hygienic and sanitary conditions as well as bad nutrition.
The report says prisons lack mandatory wards such as a drug-free ward and a juvenile ward. In addition, the report found that some facilities had unreasonably poor ventilation. Some detention facilities violated prisoners' rights to fresh air. Failures that prevented prisoners from realizing their right to consult with their attorneys were also mentioned, along with other malfunctions.
Virtually no regulation on conditions the state must afford detainees and prisoners is fully observed. The public defender's office found that 19 of the 29 detention facilities it had inspected were significantly smaller than the regulations require. ("The minimum space per detainee must not be smaller than 4.5 square meters.") Sixteen facilities were found to contain more than four beds per cell.
In addition, many facilities were understaffed, lacking social workers, psychiatrists and paramedics. Some facilities were found to be lacking in medicine. Severe violence toward prisoners was reported at several facilities.
Despite all this, the report also mentions that the IPS staff is striving to improve conditions and volunteering to fill unmanned posts that require full-time personnel. "Solving many of the problems pertaining to the conditions under which the detainees are kept depends on the immediate allocation of proper funds," the report reads.
Improving conditions at detention facilities demands investment, but not only of the financial kind. It requires a profound change in the state's attitude toward its citizens - including those who have slipped to the fringes of society.
Prisoners who have been abandoned in their cells, degraded and subjected to violence as well as physical and mental neglect make good candidates for deterioration, not rehabilitation.
Neglecting them is a blatant violation of human rights and of the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty. It shows contempt for orders by the High Court of Justice. This negligence will ultimately end up costing the state, society and its perpetrators a lot more than it saves.