Mixed Jewish-Arab towns have highest rate of incarceration

The proportion of the country's residents serving prison sentences is almost three times higher in Israeli cities with a mixed Jewish-Arab population than in communities with a homogenous, all-Arab or all-Jewish population, according to the 2005 annual report of the Prisoner Rehabilitation Authority (PRA).

The average incarceration rate for mixed communities or Arab communities located next to a Jewish one is 0.4 percent, compared to a national average of 0.14 percent, according to data collected by the Israel Prisons Service, Central Bureau of Statistics and other organizations.

The highest incarceration rates are in Lod and Acre, with 4.64 and 4.21 prisoners per 1,000 residents, respectively. Ramle also ranks high, at 2.91 per 1,000. The trend toward high incarceration rates in mixed cities is found throughout the 12-year period covered by the study.

Among Jewish cities, Tiberias has the highest imprisonment rate, at 3.01 per thousand inhabitants, followed by Be'er Sheva and Bat Yam, with 2.37 and 2.24 prisoners per thousand residents, respectively.

PRA Director Shlomo Bakish said a significant percentage of the prisoners from mixed cities are Arab. The crime rates in Arab communities are much lower than that among Arabs living in mixed communities, while the difference in the imprisonment rate between Arab and Jewish communities is declining.

The incarceration rate of 1.35 per 1,000 residents in the Arab city of Umm al-Fahm is lower than that of Jewish cities Ashdod, Ashkelon and Kiryat Gat, which have a rate of 1.4-1.5 per thousand. The percentage of Umm al-Fahm residents serving time has remained steady for the past 12 years. In contrast, the incarceration rate for Eilat nearly doubled during the same period, from 0.88 to 1.6 per 1,000 residents, and more than doubled in Bat Yam, from 1.01 to 2.24 per thousand. Incarceration rates remained steady in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, at 0.9-1 and 1.7-1.8, respectively, per 1,000 residents.

Bakish suggests three possible reasons for the relatively high incarceration rates for Arabs living in mixed Arab-Jewish cities: the temptation to steal from Jewish neighbors, whose economic situation is often better than that of the Arabs; jealousy by Arabs toward Jews; and motives originating in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Contrary to popular opinion, the incarceration rate for smaller cities such as Eilat, Hadera, Tiberias and Yavne is higher than in larger cities such as Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Rishon Letzion.

The report shows that the number of prisoners turning to the PRA for help has been increasing since 2001, when a law was passed enabling the early release of prisoners who agree to participate in a rehabilitation program. The number of prisoners who were released increased by 12 percent in 2005.

The PRA provided services to 3,654 prisoners and family members, representing a 41-percent increase over the previous year. About 350 of these prisoners, or 10 percent of the total, were Arab.

Bakish says that despite its additional workload, the PRA has not received a budget increase, amd continues to receive NIS 14 million from the state and raise NIS 3 million to NIS 4 million from various organizations. The rehabilitation work conducted by the PRA and Prisons Service has led to a relatively low recidivism rate of 50 percent, compared to an average of 65 percent in Europe and the United States, Bakish said.

In the past, most of the released prisoners receiving rehabilitation services were older, repeat offenders with families. Since the early release law was enacted, however, more PRA clients are younger, single men serving a first prison term whose chances for successful rehabilitation are higher. Most of the PRA's clients served time for drug, property and physical assault offenses.

	Police patrolling in an Arab neighborhood of Lod. (Archive)