MADINA/JEDDAH: The head of Madina's Youth Detention Center has said that a new building is under construction to which inmates will be moved once complete. “The current building is unsuitable and does not fulfill requirements,” Abdul Aziz Al-Baraka admitted. Al-Baraka's remarks followed a surprise visit to the detention center on Sunday from the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR), which made a string of criticisms, among them the lack of medical staff. “There is only one doctor who visits once a week, so we have written to Social Affairs to arrange for more doctors to make regular visits and be on call, as well as a nurse,” the NSHR said. Al-Baraka also addressed concerns over the time it takes for inmates' cases to go through the courts. “There can be delays with the Bureau of Investigation and Prosecution, or with the judge looking at the case, or the case may involve other parties,” he said. “Hold-ups in verdict approval from the appeals commission also play a part.” The NSHR visit led to criticisms of the detention building housing 105 minors, which was described by the society's supervisor in Madina, Muhammad Al-Oufi, as “one of the issues of most immediate concern” along with delayed incarceration and lack of medical staff. The doctor, Al-Oufi said, did not visit the center at regular intervals, a situation which he said was “not good enough”. The NSHR paid a second surprise visit on Sunday, this time to Madina's Women's Prison, where its female team of officials led by Sharaf Al-Qurafi criticized overcrowding, detentions without trial, and continued detention of persons despite release orders from courts. “The team also observed prisoners involved in serious crimes being incarcerated in the same blocks as petty offenders, poor standards of cleanliness, and only one classroom for educational purposes,” said Muhammad Al-Oufi. “Their observations have been forwarded to the relevant authorities.” The NSHR did highlight some positives, however, and Al-Oufi praised the Prisons Administration for its medical clinic and the telephone facilities available for inmates to contact their families. Madina Prisons general manager Muhaya Al-Suhaimi responded by saying that prisoners who should have been released earlier but remained incarcerated were non-Saudi women who were waiting for deportation procedures to be completed. “As to cleanliness, this is one of the cleanest prisons in the region,” Al-Suhaimi said. “The women always ensure that it is clean.” He added that the number of inmates was down from 150 to 78, and that overcrowding would be further addressed with expansion work to the prison due to be carried out “in the near future”. The government affiliated Human Rights Commission (HRC), meanwhile, visited Jeddah Prison on Monday. HRC head Ibrahim Al-Nuhaiyani said that his officials' observations would be forwarded in a report to the commission's head office in Riyadh in order to inform the relevant authorities of their observations. Al-Nuhaiyani said that the HRC observed at the prison new projects which would “be effective for the reforming function of prisons”.
