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At Ofek Juvenile Prison: Attempt suicide and end up tied to your bed By Tomer Zarchin Tags: Justice Ministry, Ofek Prison A report issued by the Justice Ministry's Public Defender's Office paints a harsh picture of violence, degraded conditions and negligence in the Ofek Juvenile Prison in the Sharon region. The report, which was submitted to the Prison Service over the weekend, includes testimony about punishments meted out by prison officers that include restraining juveniles to their beds for hours at a time, and very poor physical and social conditions in many other prisons and detention facilities. The Prison Service said in a statement that it will take action to correct the problems. In one wing of Ofek, prisoners complained that officers used excessive force against detainees that was equivalent to physical assault, in addition to verbal violence such as insults and curses. One juvenile prisoner related an incident in which prison guards sprayed other juvenile detainees with teargas after they banged on their cell door, after which all of them were moved into a room and beaten with clubs. In the prison isolation wing, most of the juvenile prisoners complained about violence used against them by officers in response to incidents of violence in the wing. One said he needed medical treatment, administered at Kfar Sava's Meir Hospital, after a beating by a prison guard that left him with damaged hearing. According to the report, last year, 21 suicide attempts and 19 incidents of self-harm were reported at Ofek, although the actual number may be higher. Prisoners told investigators from the Public Defender's Office that they had refrained from reporting suicide attempts by cellmates because of the officers' response - putting the offender in restraints for several hours. Advertisement Restraints for punitive purposes In May 2007 representative from the defender's officer witnessed a disciplinary measure that violated Prison Service rules: Three juveniles were kept in bed, without shirts, held in place by arm and leg restraints, for some 17 hours. They complained about being cold at night. One told the examiners that he was restrained to the upper level of a bunk bed and that when he was not permitted to use the bathroom he urinated on the juvenile in the bed below him, who was also in restraints. The public defender's examiners noted that the room smelled strongly of urine. According to the report, the three boys were released from their restraints during breakfast and placed back in restraints afterward, proof, it said, that the restraint was purely punitive and not due to any danger posed by the boys. Detainees claimed that they were often put into restraints for fighting with each other or for banging on their cell doors, and not when they posed a danger. A few of the prisoners said that a fellow juvenile prisoner was restrained for 18 hours after he threatened to kill himself. Detainees who are illegal aliens claimed that they were put into restraints more frequently than their Israeli counterparts. "In Ofek Prison we heard complaints that were completely disproportionate, when compared to the past, and compared to the adult prisons," Yoav Sapir, the deputy chief public defender, told Haaretz. He said the complaints were about lengthy punitive periods of restraint as well as of juvenile detainees being prevented from receiving furloughs. Sapir said that both these phenomena were responsible for the high rate of suicide attempts among the juvenile detainees. The report presented a depressing picture with regard to the other detention facilities and prisons as well, in which about 25,000 people are being held both before and after sentencing. In nearly half of the facilities visited by representatives of the Public Defender's Office, prisoners complained about excessive punitive measures that violated Prison Service rules, including the use of restraints on juveniles and on prisoners who threatened to commit suicide. In the case of the latter, the restraints were used in place of appropriate drug therapy. Serious infrastructural problems were found in most of the facilities under Prison Service jurisdiction. In some of the facilities, the crowding is so great that inmates have an average of only two square meters each of space, and in some cases even less. Very poor sanitary conditions were also a problem. Bookmark to del.icio.us   West Bank drought Palestinian Water Authority calls on Israel to rethink its water policies. Death of an artist Egyptian filmmaker's controversial work earned him international recognition.   1.   It`s obviously.... 10:05  |  Esther 27/07/08   2.   the state needs a few "plants" to expose these dens of torture 10:19  |  eric 27/07/08   3.   More chaos reins freely 00:35  |  Don`t disturb 28/07/08

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