After two highly publicized cases, watchdog to probe prison suicides

The state comptroller announced yesterday he would be launching a comprehensive inspection of the Prison Service and examining suicides in prisons.

State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss spoke after a joint meeting of the Knesset control and interior affairs committees.

This comes after the highly publicized suicides of TV personality Dudu Topaz and Assaf Goldring, who was suspected of murdering his 3-year-old daughter.

Prison Service officers said at the meeting that 10 prisoners had committed suicide over the past year, two of them while in police custody. Another 10 committed suicide in the preceding year. In 2000, 16 detainees and prisoners committed suicide.

The officers said that detainees are more prone to commit suicide than prisoners due to the emotional stress of being cut off from their families and awaiting their verdict.

The officers maintained that jail suicides could not be completely prevented.

"Prisoners hang themselves with a shoelace or strips of fabric torn from sheets or clothes. They use electric cables," said Prison Service Commissioner Benny Kaniak.

Prisoners always manage to find a way to commit suicide, despite the Prison Service's efforts to minimize places where they could tie an improvised noose, Kaniak said.

Topaz hung himself from the meter-high shower in his prison cell. Goldring jumped headfirst off a three-meter-high wall.

In the wake of Goldring's suicide, the service intends to cover courtyard fences and windows with plastic, even though this will damage prisoners' quality of life.

"It will turn the courtyards into hothouses. It will affect 22,000 prisoners, who will bake in the summer. Covering the windows with perspex would reduce ventilation in the cells drastically," he said.