The Letter (H)On 26 March 2006, the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) informed Adalah that it had created a spacious and sheltered waiting hall for the families visiting Palestinian prisoners from the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPTs) incarcerated in the Ohalei Kedar Detention Center and Eshel Prison, both located in the south of Israel. The IPS further stated that it had built large and air-conditioned rooms, in addition to play areas for children adjacent to the prison yard.
The IPS’s statements came in response to a letter sent by Adalah on 14 February 2006 to the head of the IPS, Yaakov Ganot, and the Minister of Internal Security, Gideon Ezra. In the letter, Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker demanded improvements in the conditions for the families of Palestinian prisoners visiting their relatives in the two prisons. In the letter, Adalah drew on the affidavit of a woman who paid visits to the prisons and complained at the appalling conditions provided for visitors. For example, prisoners’ family members, men, women and children alike, were made to wait standing outside of the prisons for many hours in an unsheltered area, exposed to biting cold and rain in winter, and sweltering heat in summer. The area designated for waiting also lacked drinking water and even toilet facilities. The absence of comfortable and suitable waiting areas has forced prisoners’ families, upon entering a waiting room, to leave all of their belongings and even their children, outside without any supervision.
In the letter, Adalah emphasized that the facilities being provided for visiting family members of Palestinian prisoners were humiliating and in gross violation of the rights of prisoners and their families to visits and of the constitutional right to a family life. The state is obliged, Adalah argued, to provide appropriate conditions for prisoners to meet their families. The state’s duties towards prisoners include the duty to allocate sufficient resources and budget allowances to guarantee that visits can be made in a suitable manner and without any obstacles.