Rights watchdog calls for closure of overcrowded prison

A leading human rights organisation has called on the government to close the remote Jafr prison, located in an isolated desert area nearly 256 km south of the capital, Amman. "The prison is located in a far away and isolated location that is difficult to reach, and so the inmate loses the opportunity to contact his family,” stated a report released this week by the state-financed National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR), a quasi-governmental body. “The visits become a punishment also for their families due to the distance and cost of reaching [the prison]," stated the report, also noting that there was a perception among detainees that incarceration at Jafr was “an extra punishment.” The latest findings from NCHR, Jordan’s official human rights watchdog, were compiled after scores of recent meetings with the inmates of 11 prisons. Jafr prison, first established in 1953, has since become notorious for holding Jordan’s leading political dissidents. Many Islamist radicals are currently held there. Overcrowding at the prison, which holds more than 6,000 convicted criminals and political prisoners, in addition to an estimated 3,000 administrative detainees awaiting trial, has resulted in a deterioration of services, the report further noted. According to the NCHR study, the prison currently holds a total of 2,884 administrative detainees. The report further found that first-time detainees were regularly housed with hardened criminals. While there has been a drop in the number of allegations of inhumane behaviour against inmates, complaints of beatings by prison wardens has been reported in four prisons. The NCHR caused a public outcry when its first report on the state of Jordanian prisons, released in September 2004, noted widespread abuse of prisoners and detailed the alleged beating to death of an Islamist inmate. The findings echoed earlier reports by international rights groups such as Amnesty International, which have noted the ill-treatment of both political and criminal suspects. 2005 witnessed several strikes by political detainees, protesting poor prison conditions and abuse. Many political detainees put on trial say their confessions were extracted under duress. Jordanian authorities deny the alleged violations. "Any allegations about beatings or torture are totally false, as there is no torture in Jordanian prisons,” said police spokesman Maj Muhanad Shareida. “But some of the legitimate complaints in the report will be addressed by the appropriate authorities,” he added.