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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 22 - 28 July 1999 Issue No. 439
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Profile Features Focus Interview Travel Living Sports Time Out Chronicles People Cartoons Letters Emphasising rehabilitation
By Mariz TadrosHuman rights organisations have long criticised what they report to be the deplorable conditions of Egyptian prisons. Nothing new or particularly surprising there. But when an autonomous semi-governmental body actually condemns living conditions in prisons as inhuman, then all hell breaks loose. The report was prepared by specialised national councils, composed of experts from many disciplines who investigate issues and phenonema of national concern. They report their findings straight to the president.
The report examines judicial policy and the penal authorities. Particularly interesting is its description of prison conditions and its recommendations. In a nutshell, the report criticises "the absence of specialised institutions for those who have a record of repeated crimes, the absence of reception halls in some of the prisons, the overcrowdedness of some of the prisons, the lack of categorisation between prisoners convicted of different crimes, the inadequacy of health facilities, the bad state of clothing and furnishing, the shortage of doctors, social workers and psychologists and the unavailability of educational and training facilities."
The report urged that the principle of categorisation of prisoners must be upheld between those who are temporarily detained, those who are accused of crimes of vice and political prisoners. The categorisation of prisoners should be based on detailed reports of their social, psychological and medical state, which are more often than not, asserted the report, missing and incomplete. But then again, according to the report, sometimes social workers do not do their work seriously because they have not been properly trained or are over-worked.
The report recommended the replacement of the current old-style prisons, which it described as unfit for human beings, with modern ones and the application of rehabilitation and reform programmes. It pointed out that general prisons house around 25,000 prisoners, in addition to thousands of others in municipal prisons, police stations and temporary detainment. It is estimated that the number increases by 10 per cent annually, and in some years by 15 per cent.
Special attention, the report suggested, needs to be paid to prisoners' nutrition, in terms of quantity, quality and preparation.
In addition to the lack of educational and sports facilities, prisons' working conditions also got their fair share of reproach in the report which emphasised that the objective of work should not just be production, but rehabilitation, and "therefore the administration is mistaken if it thinks that the prison's purpose is to take advantage of prisoners' labour for profit-making... It has been observed that work in prison is still of a punitive nature, often being extreme and harsh."
While the report noted that there are 20 NGOs whose mandate is to take care of prisoners and their families and that assistance is also provided through the Ministry of Social Affairs, it points out, however, that there are still some pressing obstacles, including the rehabilitation of former convicts and the legal difficulties facing those who have a criminal record. A special programme for their rehabilitation is required to be designed not just by those working within the prison institutions, but also by those who will be responsible for their rehabilitation in society.
The most important recommendation made by the report was that prisons should come under the surveillance of the Ministry of Justice, and not the Ministry of Interior. The report points out that despite the police being a civil authority, as is stipulated in the constitution, the prisons are of a semi-military nature, despite the fact that the First Conference on Fighting Crime, held under the auspices of the United Nations in 1955, urged that the administration of prisons be distanced from the military regime.
"We are convinced that the categorisation of prisoners in Egyptian prisons is not aimed at reform and rehabilitation, but at keeping law and order and preventing chances of escape," it stated.
Interestingly, just a couple of weeks after the publication of the report's findings in the daily Al-Ahram, an anonymous security source was quoted in the newspaper as refuting and/or denying just about every point made in the report.
According to the article, two representatives from the World Health Organisation (WHO), who visited Egyptian prisons last month, hailed the exemplary state of Egyptian prisons and are currently documenting the Egyptian experience for other countries to learn from. The same anonymous source emphasised the high quality of health services prisoners enjoy, which are provided in collaboration with the Ministry of Health. The source also said that the food given to prisoners is of a higher quality than most of their families are able to afford and that special diets, according to the recommendations of the national nutritional institute, are prepared for prisoners who suffer from diabetes or heart or liver problems.
The source justified the use of flogging as punishment on the basis that it is necessary to maintain law and order and that, in any case, it is less harsh than other forms of punishment such as solitary confinement.
He pointed out that the Ministry of Interior is concerned for the rehabilitation of prisoners, rather than the maintenance of security. The anonymous security source slammed human rights organisations which, he alleged, exaggerate and distort facts. He dismissed the rationale behind the recommendation that prisons should be under the Justice Ministry's jurisdiction -- which is to ensure that their human rights are not violated. He denied that prisons were under a semi-military regime.
Hafez Abu Se'da, secretary-general of the Egyptian Organisation for Human Rights, hailed the national specialised councils' report and its recommendations, noting in particular that the report criticised Egyptian prison laws on the basis of standards established by international human rights conventions. He said human rights organisations supported the report's recommendation that prisons come under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice instead of the Ministry of Interior because "dealing with prisoners in terms of rehabilitation is different from dealing with them as security threats. We believe that if non-security officials were in charge of the prisons, they would treat their constituency differently."
Abu Se'da argued that the Ministry of Interior "should stop denying the existence of human rights violations in prisons and admit that there is a problem, be it in the absence of adequate facilities or the philosophy behind the penal system. Only then can reform proceed. We are prepared to work with the Ministry of Interior in improving prison conditions, if only they will let us."
