Israel Prison Service Places Total Ban on Bringing Books into Prisons
On 5 April 2009, Adalah sent a pre-petition to the legal advisor to the Israel Prison Service (IPS), demanding the immediate cancellation of an IPS decision to place a total ban on bringing books into prisons. Adalah argued that this sweeping decision is illegal and contradicts the prison regulations, which clearly stipulate the right of prisoners to purchase reading materials, including books, and to receive such materials from their families. In addition, Adalah contended that reading books allows prisoners to spend their time in a positive and active manner.
The pre-petition was submitted by Adalah Attorney Abeer Baker, who argued that the IPS’s decision violates the constitutional rights of prisoners, including the rights to intellectual freedom, dignity and education, and, most importantly, the right to freedom of expression. Freedom of expression is among the most important constitutional rights, and specifies that a person is entitled to make his opinion heard and to hear the opinions of others, whether orally or in writing. Therefore, this right can only be restricted when a prisoner expressing his view is almost certain to threaten public order and safety, or order and discipline within the prison.
Attorney Baker strongly criticized internal prison regulations that grant the directors of Israeli prisons the authority to ban the entry of specific books into prison. Thus the regulations allow the director of a prison to ban a book that contains “conclusions and lessons from revolutions and wars between armed factions.” The regulations are also written in a vague and general manner, which affords prison directors a large amount of leeway to make decisions according to their own personal inclinations, without having to refer to specific guiding criteria. Therefore the regulations must be cancelled or greatly cut down.
In the pre-petition Adalah demanded that the IPS immediately cancel its new decision, before Adalah resorts to the courts to resolve this matter.
