The Israel Prison Service is embroiled in yet another scandal with the reports on Friday that at least one female prison guard conscript had a consensual or non-consensual relationship with a terrorist in an Israeli prison.
The tenure of IPS commissioner Katy Perry has been riddled with incidents that amount to a failure to punish criminals and cloister off threats to society.
Perry was appointed to her position in January 2021. In September of that year, the Gilboa Prison experienced a prison break in which six terrorists managed to tunnel out of the maximum security prison. Five other prisoners had helped with the escape. The manhunt for the escapees lasted almost two weeks before the last of the convicts were recaptured. The Gilboa prison break was perhaps one of the most notable in Israel’s history.
Doubts about Perry’s continued service as head of the IPS were immediately shot down by the commissioner, who said in a letter three days after the prison break “I am here to continue to lead you.”
Gilboa Prison warden Freddy Ben-Sheetrit was fired in November 2022. An investigation committee in May called for Northern Commander Arik Yaakov to end his service. For Deputy northern commander Moni Bitan, any promotion should take the prison break into account, said the committee. Perry escaped censure.
Inquiries into the prison break revealed another scandal. Ben-Sheetrit revealed information that lead to the widespread publication about the so-called “pimping affair,” in which prison staff allegedly facilitated terrorist Muhammad Atallah alleged raped or sexual harassment of at least six female prison guards from 2015-2017. On Monday, a letter from the attorney representing the guards, Keren Barak, said the abuse lasted four years.
The investigation was closed in 2018, the testimonies of the victims under gag order, and consequences unrealized. It was only with public scrutiny in 2021 that heads began to roll — in December 2021 State Attorney Amit Aisman reopened criminal investigations.
Former prison intelligence officer Rani Basha was fired in July 2022, reportedly having placed female guards into Atallah’s wing at his request in exchange for information. One guard claimed that her phone number was given to the terrorist, and he continued to contact her after her mandatory service had ended. Nissim Finish, a former intelligence officer in the Gilboa prison, resigned in February. Both Basha and Gilboa Prison’s former commander Bassem Kashkosh are under indictment pending a hearing. Kashkosh reportedly knew of the assaults. Atallah also faces prosecution for rape and indecent acts.
Perry is not responsible for the pimping affair — it occurred long before her tenure. However the inaction and silence, and even possible cover-up of the assaults, did continue for months into her service. There was enough information available to warrant the opening of indictments and fire staff, what lacked was the will to do so.
New prison sex scandal under Katy Perry’s watch
It does appear that a new prison sex scandal has rocked the prisons under Perry’s watch.
On Friday, it was reported by Israeli media that at least one IPS conscript had an affair with a terrorist inmate. The lawyer for the woman asserted that the relationship was not consensual, as she had been assaulted multiple times while under threat of harm to herself, her family, and her reputation.
There is currently a gag order on the investigation, but more details are expected to be revealed soon, such as how many guards were involved.
Whether the terrorist was able to enjoy intimate relations when he was supposed to be suffering punishment for his crimes or was in an environment that allowed him to engage in the assault of guards, the fact is that the IPS had years to learn from the pimping affair and implement policies to protect female guards.
Instead, it took a second incident to accelerate a solution, whether one agrees with the new policy or not.
Any system can suffer the windblows of an exceptional black swan event, but the inability to address the role of female guards in security wings demonstrates a systemic failure in the IPS.
A systemic failure in the Israeli Prison Service
The IPS seems to be unable to meet the most basic function of a prison system, housing prisoners. Public Defender Anat Meyassed-Cnaan said in an August letter to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (Otzma Yehudit) that the prisons are in a state of crisis, with overcrowding resulting in degrading conditions.
The Israeli prison system has a maximum occupancy capacity standard of 14,500 prisoners, but in August there were 16,100 prisoners and detainees. Meyassed-Cnaan said that in February inmates and detainees were being illegally housed in the same wing in Nitzan Prison. Some detainees were sleeping on mattresses on the floors. Just over half of all inmates lacked the space mandated by law.
Overcrowding led in many cases to detainees being forced to stay at police stations. Nineteen stations were found to be housing detainees for long periods of time in 2022. These stations lack the resources to sustain long-term housing, not having enough beds, mattresses, toilets, and showers, nor the capability to consistently provide food, water, toiletries, and clothing. Reports by the Public Defender’s Office revealed accounts of inhumane conditions.
The housing of detainees in police stations first emerged in 2022, and was supposed to have ended in December after the Association for Civil Rights in Israel petitioned the High Court of Justice. The petition was canceled, but the practice soon resumed.
In response, Perry has frozen renovations of wings to allow for beds to be restored, and some 200 low-level criminals have been released.
Many have blamed Ben-Gvir for the current state of affairs, and while the national security minister may have some responsibility in the state of the prison, he only came into power around nine months ago. It is Perry that has presided to some extent over all these incidents.
Perry is set to end her term in January 2024.
With each scandal, there have been firings and investigations. It can be argued for each that Perry did not have direct involvement, and that it was the failings of her underlings. However. part of leadership is taking responsibility for what happens under one’s command, even if it wasn’t directly one’s fault.
So far, Perry has not fallen on her sword, but given IPS’s current track record, it’s not impossible that yet another scandal will emerge between now and January.
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