Lebanese prisons are operating at double their official capacity, prompting a string of grave human rights violations, according to a report obtained exclusively by The Daily Star.
While maximum capacity is listed as 3,653 inmates across Lebanon’s 21 adult prisons, between 5,876 to over 7,000 prisoners are currently detained in Lebanese jails, the “Prisons and Prisoners in Lebanon, legislation, rights and recommendations,” report said.
Scheduled for release next month, the legal dossier addresses the main gaps in Lebanese prison legislation and living conditions within detention facilities, contrasting them with international norms.
“Conditions in Lebanese prisons are in no way consistent with international standards,” said report author Rabih Kays, a university law professor and human rights activist, who has worked on the study for the last five months. “We are in serious need of major prison law reforms to tackle the problem.
“The conditions of the prisoners are worsening and they are living in a very bad situation,” he added.
The most grievous offenses caused by the overcrowding include, inadequate access to natural light, insufficient exercise time, poor meal provisions, deplorable sanitation, and chronic overcrowding where inmates are often left sharing beds or sleeping on the floor.
Poor medical care has also been highlighted as a major grievance, with most prisoners suffering from chronic illnesses, such as heart conditions or some cancers, failing to undergo consistent monitoring and care.
“There are not enough doctors to take care of the prisoners,” said Kays. “Under Lebanese and international regulations a doctor is required to check up on all patients at least once a week to see if they are in need of medicines, or have any symptoms, but this is not carried out.”
Hospital visits are usually limited and only carried out in emergencies, making little room for life-saving treatments, such as radiotherapy. Additionally, inmates are denied access to dentists and no special provisions are available for drug addicts, many of whom suffer from extreme physical side effects of withdrawal, the report said.
Overcrowding has widely been blamed on the slowness of the trial process and the unsatisfactory state of legal aid, which is provided to all detainees on a pro-bono basis, but is in extremely short supply.
“A judge can seek a postponement upon the presentation of new evidence,” said Kays. “Every time this happens, the session is delayed for another three to four months, which means that four is the absolute maximum amount of sessions you can have in one year.
“This is part of the reason that we have people waiting for many months and years without a sentence.”
Over recent months riots have swept through Roumieh prison, Lebanon’s most notorious jail and home to over 3,200 inmates. Separate reports emerged last week that at least 20 inmates were hospitalized after staging a hunger strike, started in opposition to the slow pace of legislative reforms.
While Roumieh is at the heart of the humanitarian controversy, conditions at other jails, namely the General Security prisons where foreigners are detained for illegal entry, or breaking the terms of their visas, were also condemned by the report.
“I found no legal justification at all for the General Security prisons used to detain foreigners,” said Kays. “Authorities say that they are just transit facilities where foreigners await deportation, but many are left there for a long time.”
The General Security Detention Center in Adlieh that houses many of the jailed migrants is located underneath a bridge and is overwhelmingly underground, which is considered a major human rights violation.
Some 13 percent of the Lebanese prison population consists of foreigners who have concluded their sentence but have not been released, either through inaction by their home embassies or the slowness of the bureaucratic process in Lebanon.
“There are lots of obstacles to human rights in Lebanon but from my point of view we have three major human rights problems: the Palestinian refugees, the state of Lebanese prisons and the treatment of foreign domestic workers,” said Kays.
Several legal steps have been suggested and the report advocates the immediate enactment of a 2002 law reducing sentences for “good behavior.” “The law has received parliamentary approval but not the governmental implementation decree,” said Kays. “It would be a good first step.”