In hopes of alleviating an overcrowding crisis that critics have warned has created degrading conditions, Israel Prison Service (IPS) is freezing renovation programs of prison wings to allow prisoners back into the emptied areas, the IPS spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Israel Prison Service head Katy Perry ordered the delay in construction in the hopes of freeing up 200 more spots for convicts and could add more beds in prisons in the north, south, and center of the country. Construction work had required that inmates be moved from the wings.
“The Prison Service is the national correctional organization of the State of Israel, and as such our mission is to create places of confinement in order to enable and support the important operational activity of the other security agencies: the IDF, the Shin Bet, and the Israel Police in a joint effort to fight crime and terrorism,” said Perry.
Perry made the decision on Wednesday after a morning situation assessment.
Last Wednesday Public Defender Anat Meyassed-Cnaan sent a letter to Public Defender Anat Meyassed-Cnaan warning that Israel’s prisons are in a state of crisis, and overcrowding is creating degrading conditions for prisoners.
Gilboa prison from which six terrorists escaped on Monday (credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)Overcrowding crisis
As of Wednesday, there were 16,100 prisoners and detainees held by IPS. Meyassed-Cnaan said in her letter last week that the maximum occupancy capacity standard of the prison system was 14,500 people.
In February overcrowding left almost half of all inmates without basic conditions of 4.5 square meters per person. Visits by the Public Defender’s office to the Nitzan Prison and Detention Center in July found inmates were being housed in the same wings in violation of the law. Some detainees were sleeping on mattresses on the floor.
In many cases, detainees were forced to stay at police stations. 19 stations were found to be housing detainees for long periods of time in 2022. Such stations lack the necessary resources for such utility, lacking beds, mattresses, toilets, and showers. Basic services such as food, water, toiletries, and clothing are also limited.
Last August human rights the Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice against the practice of housing detainees in these conditions, but the petition was rejected after IPS said they were ending the procedure. Reports of the practice soon reemerged.
Perry has overseen several major scandals in the IPS. In 2021, six convicted Palestinian terrorists escaped the Gilboa Prison through a tunnel they had dug. They were eventually caught after a massive manhunt.
Inquiries helped publicize the “pimping affair,” in which female prison guards were sexually assaulted and raped by Palestinian security prisoners whole officials looked the other way.
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