Overcrowded jail grants each prisoner just 1.37 square meters - Haaretz

Subscribe to Print Edition

Wed., October 17, 2007 ,

Israel Time: 00:20 (EST+7)

web haaretz.com

Back to Homepage

Print Edition

Diplomacy

Defense

Arts & Leisure

Real Estate

Jewish World

National

Advertising

Magazine

Week's End

Business

Opinion

Rosner's Domain

Anglo File

Books

Travel

del.icio.us

Digg It! new

Last update - 14:19 17/10/2007

Overcrowded jail grants each prisoner just 1.37 square meters

By Shahar Ilan, Haaretz Correspondent

The average living space allocated to prisoners at the Ofer detention center is 1.37 square meters, Israel Prisons Service statistics have shown.

The IPS figures were presented Tuesday before the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee. The prison, situated just north of Jerusalem, was designed for almost 900 security prisoners and last year was transferred to the IPS from the authority of the Military Police.

The situation at the Kishon Prison near Haifa isn't much better. The 700 security and criminal prisoners there have an average living space of 1.97-square-meters per person. In the Ramon Prison, the area is 2.04 square meters, in the Shata Prison 2.16 and in the Carmel Prison 2.20.

	Advertisement

The average space alloted to an Israeli prisoner on average has dropped in recent years from 3.4 square meters to only 2.9.

In comparison, European prisons have an average of 4.5-square-meters per prisoner.

The chairman of the committee, MK Menahem Ben-Sasson (Kadima), demanded immediate solutions from the IPS for prisoners in the Kishon and Ofer prisons, mandating that their living space would increased to at least 2 square meters each. Also, Ben-Sasson demanded that no prisoner will have less than 3 square meters within a year from today.

IPS Legal Adviser Haim Shmuelevich explained that it is difficult to solve the overcrowding problem by moving prisoners around between prisons. This is because it is not possible to incarcerate youths with adults, or security prisoners with ordinary criminals.

Bookmark to del.icio.us


	Hitler to 'turn in grave'
	Barenboim's Israeli-Palestinian orchestra are to play at an arena built by the Nazi leader.


	Old Hebron's last Jew
	Yosef Ezra, whose family only left the city in 1947, testifies for its Jewish residents today.




1.	of course	23:17	\|	realism	17/10/07

Today Online


	Syria: We never said nuclear facility was target of IAF strike
	Responses: 154


	Jewish rightist: 'Finish Hitler's work, kill Ashkenazi Jews'
	Responses: 133


	Shragai: If we divide J'lem, Jews can forget the Western Wall
	Responses: 188


	Bush warns that a nuclear Iran could spur 'World War III'
	Responses: 53


	Study: Israel is biggest polluter in eastern Mediterranean
	Responses: 93


	Wife of abducted soldier: Israel did not receive info on troops
	Responses: 62

Rosner's Domain

* Announcing Annapolis was a mistake

* Guest: The greatest threat to the future of Israel is the status quo

* WTR: Israelis use U.S. Clause to let kids become Americans

* And also faired better than Giuliani on Iran (The Israel Factor)

More Headlines
22:01 Bush warns nuclear Iran could spur 'World War III'


21:59 Livni: Talks aimed at reaching wide deal with PA before summit


00:01 Dichter hints at broadening IDF action after soldier dies in Gaza


23:59 UN blames interpreter's error for report Syria has nuclear facility


20:33 Survey: 25% of Germans believe Nazi period had some benefits


23:47 Hundreds attend funeral of drowned Israeli returned by Hezbollah


16:50 Wife of abducted soldier: Israel did not receive info on soldiers


21:20 Visiting U.S. mayors look to partner with Israeli biotech firms


21:36 PA official: Palestinian security to deploy more troops in Nablus


16:47 Chief Rabbi Amar to demand stricter conversions during U.S. visit