HRANA News Agency – Saghez Central Prison as most prisons in the country has many problems including environmental, behavioral and management, inmates in the prison are the best narrators to explain the situation in such places. Prisoners in Central Prison of Saghez had prepared a report to attract the attention of the authorities and reform the prison conditions.
According to the report of Human Rights Activists News Agency in Iran (HRANA), Saghez Central Prison in the western province of Kurdistan and whereabouts of hundreds of prisoners with various crimes, has many problems like most prisons in the country. Prisoners have prepared a report and delivered it to HRANA to be published which focuses on different aspects of these problems.
Read the full text of the report:
The prison was supposed to be somewhere to modify the behavior of those who have acted in contrary to social norms. The genesis of the prison shows that the mechanism is being triggered by the pride of the rulers and since past century it has changed to a mean removed and take revenge from the critics.
The physical structure of the prison:
Central Prison of Saghez has a main corridor (Hall) with the length of 60 meters and a width of 2 meters and has 4 wards including 2 small wards and 2 large wards, strap and a multi-purpose hall, gym, library and a cinema.
The wards
The prison has 4 wards and a quarantine. Ward number 1 is a place for drug offenders, but has prisoners with all the crime. Health ward or ward number 2 is for financial crimes, murderers and security prisoners, but has prisoners with all crimes. The other ward is the Koran ward where is for those who want to find a way to life from prison, but in fact it is not. It is a place to promote extremist religious ideas. It is a ward where is just like the military.
Quarantine is a place for newcomers and where initial medical examinations are carried out. It is under the direct supervision of protection and manager of prison.
Lack of separation of prisoners based on crime and age:
There is no separation of prisoners based on their ages, it means someone who is 15 years old and has made a mistake intentionally or unintentionally for the first time, is kept along with a criminal who has been brought to the prison several times. The criminal as an older and a teacher trains the newly arrived teenager. There is no separation of prisoners based on their crimes either.
Lack of usage of training and sport facilities:
In this prison there is a multisport gym and a cultural Unit. The gym consists of a multi-purpose hall where prisoners play volleyball or football in the evening without any program and sport facilities.
The Cultural Unit has 3 rooms, one of which is the library which is divided into four sections. Two and half sections are devoted to Shia and the rest to other books.
There are other rooms that are basically empty and there are only a few empty tables. In this cultural venue no training classes would be held except religious classes which are also done by force. If anyone avoids to participate in these classes, he will be treated by the intelligence and director.
Behavior of prison staff
The behavior of the prison personnel are all tastes. It means they act according to their personal interpretation and change the laws by their justifications and explaining.
For example they rewrite the Prisons Organization Act Regulations and somehow they are constantly thinking of how to use these laws to harass the prisoners and restrict them, in particular, prison security officials.
Desecration and defamation at meetings in the prison
In this prison one day is considered for prisoners to meet their families, in the author’s ward, Sundays are for phone appointments but Wednesdays are the days when the prisoners are happy and in good mood, however on arrival and departure of the families, they would be treated very harshly, It is as if the families and the prisoners have no personality and human dignity.
Attending religious days
Attending the religious services is mandatory and all prisoners must be present and in the absence of a prisoner, the authorities even ban him from furlough and meeting or in some cases they have transferred him to the solitary confinement.
Prison clinic
In the clinic of central prison of Saghez, there is no health care facility, and even an experienced physician who could provide therapy for a disease such as a cold and naturally, in such circumstances, the lives of emergency patients are always at risk.
In the end we call on domestic and international officials and human rights organizations to visit the prison to fix the problems. Of course, not to visit the prison and treat us as rebels which has always been done without resulting in any changes and has sometimes even worsened our situation.