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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly On-line 21 - 27 September 2000 Issue No. 500
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Elections Development Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Special Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Rehabilitating the prison system
By Jailan Halawi
Local and foreign human rights groups, who have often criticised conditions at Egyptian jails, have welcomed a decision by Interior Minister Habib El-Adli to outlaw the flogging and caning of prisoners. However, the groups are calling for still more reforms of the penal system.
The ministry of interior announced on Sunday that the State Council, the top administrative legal body, has prepared a draft bill to abolish the use of flogging and caning as disciplinary measures in prisons.
The bill, recommended by El-Adli, must be approved by parliament before it becomes law.
Flogging and caning were first introduced in Egyptian prisons 44 years ago. Adult inmates receive a maximum of 36 lashes for offences such as assaulting prison officers or mutiny. Jailed minors are caned 10 times for disciplinary offences.
"The philosophy of punishment has changed," said Maj-Gen Sami Abdel-Gawad, assistant to the interior minister and chief of the ministry's prisons department, in an interview with Al-Ahram Weekly. "Physical punishment is no longer used as a means of reforming inmates. Today our main emphasis is on rehabilitation, so inmates can eventually reintegrate into society," he added.
Other forms of punishment include depriving prisoners of monthly family visits and solitary confinement, depending on the type of violation they have committed.
The old philosophy, as Abdel-Gawad described it, depended mainly on the use of physical punishment as a means of making inmates "pay" for the crimes they committed against society. This included, in addition to flogging, breaking and pulverizing stones in quarries.
"We're more concerned today with how to direct the energies of inmates into the right channels," he said.
In order for inmates to earn a living and have their energies creatively channelled, the prisons department offers instruction in manual work such as pottery, woodwork and weaving. Prisoners' wages are kept by the authorities until their release. "The manual labour shows prisoners how to be productive while earning their living by legitimate means," Abdel-Gawad noted.
In reaction to the ban on flogging and caning, Amnesty International said it welcomed the Egyptian Interior Ministry's decision. However, "the organisation continues to be concerned about prison conditions in the country, in particular the lack of medical care, overcrowding and the poor quality of food, all of which contributes to the spread of diseases," Christopher Scheuer, Amnesty International's Middle East correspondent, told the Weekly. "The right of many political prisoners to be visited by lawyers and family members continues to be denied or to be severely restricted; we hope prison conditions in Egypt will further improve," he added.
In 1998, said Abdel-Gawad, the ministry increased the food ration allotted to prisoners on the advice of the ministry of health's Nutrition Institute. Further, he affirmed that there is now an adequate number of resident doctors in all prison hospitals. "We also have an agreement with the ministry of health to take care of some cases that need special treatment," he added.
In order to solve the overcrowding problem, he continued, the ministry has built nine new prisons in various parts of Egypt, and has renovated old ones. "We do not have a magic wand; we're doing our best but this will take some time," Abdel-Gawad said.
The Human Rights Centre for the Assistance of Prisoners (HRCAP) issued a statement on Sunday, welcoming the minister's decision and also asking him for more reforms. Mohamed Zare', the centre's director, praised the bill as "a serious step towards respecting human rights."
Nevertheless, Zare' expressed the hope that the scope of the reforms would be expanded so as to include political prisoners. "In spite of the importance of this decision, its impact and effectiveness will remain limited unless it is supplemented by additional measures aimed at rehabilitating released detainees and extended to those who have been detained for many years without charge," he said.
Under the emergency law in force since 1981, allegedly thousands of members or suspected members of extremist Islamist groups are held in detention without charge. "Some of them are held in so-called closed prisons, where they exist in total seclusion," he added.
Related sites:
Amnesty International
