Thursday, May 16, 2013
Prisons in Saudi Arabia have become largely overcrowded because of an increase in the number of offenders and a delay in the release of inmates whose jail terms have expired, the Kingdom's prisons department chief has said.
The number of prisoners at the central jails in the capital Riyadh and the western Saudi towns of Makkah and Jeddah is now nearly three times the capacity of those prisons, Major General Ali Al Harthi told Sabq newspaper.
"The problem has been caused by failure of the ministries of justice and health as well as the immigration and the prosecutors to cooperate with us...they have not taken any measures to ease the pressure on prisons," he said.
"They still continue to send to jail those who have not been sentenced yet and refuse to send those detained for illness to quarantine sections to avert the spread of infection...many prisoners whose jail terms have expired are also still in prison."
Harthi said around 6,300 inmates are currently in Riyadh's central prison although it can accommodate up to 1,800 persons.
There are also 2,500 and 7,400 inmates in the central prisons of Makkah and Jeddah while they have a capacity for 700 and 2,000 respectively, he added.
Sabq said its reporter had visited some prisons and found that scores of inmates sleep inside toilets while garbage has piled up in most cells and corridors.
© Emirates 24|7 2013
