Gaza's New Luxury Prison

We do not practice any torture here. That takes place at the interrogation centre, before people are convicted.
Naser Suleiman, director of Gaza's Central Rehabilitation and Reform Centre

Leave it to Hamas to build the first luxury prison:

Naser Suleiman has what many Gazans can only dream of: a well-paid job that he loves.

The director of Gaza's new maximum security prison, Suleiman is proud of the facility that he says is the territory's first prison to be built by inmates.

''It's like a five-star hotel here,'' he says, pointing to the freshly painted architrave in his office.


The most striking aspect of the prison is the atmosphere of leeway. Friends and relatives of the inmates walk in and out of the main entrance unhindered, more like visitors to a hospital.

Also absent are the steel bars, razor wire and electric fences that are standard features in most modern prisons.

One reason for the lack of bars and fences is that Gazans--under the rule of Hamas terrorists--do not have open access to either Israel or Egypt, leaving the Mediterranean Sea, so escape from prison does not leave any options.

Still, to hear Suleiman, the prison is an enlightened place--the epitome of what a prison should be:

"The prisoners here are treated with great respect,'' he explains earnestly. "We allow the inmates to watch television and listen to the radio in their rooms and they can prepare their own food, in addition to what we provide them. We even allow prisoners who behave well weekend leave, so they can spend time with their families."

Built for 150 inmates, the Central Rehabilitation and Reform Centre is home to the usual types of villains, including murderers, rapists and thieves. About 13 are on death row.

The prison also comes equipped with a gallows in the basement, and has already been put to use.

In contrast to this rather glowing description from the Sydney Morning Herald, last month Miftah.org described the Gaza's Central Rehabilitation and Reform Centre as chaotic:

Naser Suleiman admits that the prison system he runs is chaotic. The man in charge of jails in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip made no effort to disguise the fact during an interview recently with reporters in his office at a prison in downtown Gaza City. While responding to questions, Mr Suleiman had several conversations on his mobile phone and, at one point, jokingly waved around his pistol.

"I agree with you. There must be stricter procedures here," he said, laughing. Mr Suleiman was referring to the prison in Gaza City that houses convicted murderers and other hardened felons. It could hardly be described a "high-security" facility. Electrical wires protrude from the walls of the prison and construction debris lines the stairwell. The facility looks more like an apartment building under construction than a prison for dangerous criminals.

Just as Hamas struggles to keep order in this restive strip of land of 1.5 million people, Mr Suleiman is trying to do the same inside Gaza's prisons. And just as Israel's blockade of Gaza stunts economic growth and curtails the ambitions of everyday Gazans, it also impairs Mr Suleiman's ability to operate prisons. Authorities started moving prisoners into the still-incomplete Central Rehabilitation and Reform Centre about three months ago

...In some rooms, prisoners serving sentences of a few years are mixed with prisoners who have been sentenced to death. "I pointed the gun to his head and the bullet accidentally came out," said Osama al Ghoul, 31, who was convicted of murdering a business associate and then sentenced to death. He explained the circumstances of the killing from a cell jammed with other inmates. Standing next to him behind blue metal bars were boys in their teens and men in their 50s. Some were convicted of relatively minor crimes such as theft

I suppose that maybe the Gazan prison really is enlightened--by Hamas standards.

Hat tip:DR

Technorati Tag: Central Rehabilitation and Reform Centre and Gaza and Hamas.