THE situation regarding the investigation into conditions at the women's correctional facility in Makkah is becoming both more surreal and more worrisome as time passes. The Ministry of Social Affairs issued a report on a riot which took place in the prison recently, claiming the two women allegedly responsible for the disturbance had apparently seen a jinn in the facility and that sighting touched off behavior that ignited a violent upheaval at the prison. Well, at least, the ministry is admitting that a riot of some sort actually took place at the facility, a 180 degree turn on its original stance that it knew nothing about disturbance. But in a facility where inmates have made complaints of no access to medical care, no family visits, unhygienic food and physical assaults – complaints which have been verified by both the National Society for Human Rights and the Bureau for Investigation and Prosecution – blaming the sighting of jinn for a violent rebellion by the inmates seems disingenuous at best. The report did include some reasonable recommendations concerning the employment of more female personnel at the center and the need for a female doctor to visit the facility every two weeks. It also admitted to a need of a female psychologist and a female nurse on staff, and said that it might be a good idea to employ modern educational methods to replace simple corporal punishment of the inmates. This all amounts to too little too late, of course, and sharply self-evident to boot. How exactly did the facility fall to such depths that these most logical of improvements needed a ministry report to urge their adoption? Who is in charge of feeding the inmates, determining their diet? Are we living in a century where ‘bread and water' is a suitable diet for prisoners? Inmates should not be treated with kid gloves. They did not get to where they are because they were acting nice. Nevertheless, incarceration for whatever reason does not mean a complete surrender of human dignity. If the inmates have given an accurate description of conditions at the correctional facility – and it seems that they have – the presence of jinn is hardly necessary to touch off a riot. __
