Adalah Demands Installation of Cooling Devices in Gilboa and Shata Prisons due to Intense Summer Heat

On 26 June 2011, Adalah sent a letter to the Israel Prison Service (IPS) demanding that it prepare for the hot, summer weather by immediately improving conditions and installing air cooling devices in two prisons, Gilboa and Shata, located in the Bisan (Beit She'an) Valley in Israel.

In the letter, Adalah Attorney Rima Ayoub describes the overwhelming heat and humidity in the prisons during the summer and the severe impact that it has on the mental and physical health of the prisoners. According to prisoners with whom Adalah met, in every cell there is only one window. On average eight prisoners have eight fans at their disposal, and it would seem that these devices should provide an adequate response to the intense summer heat. However, the window is filled with bars, and the air coming in is hot and humid. Further, the fans installed in the cells also just circulate hot air and act like heaters.

Adalah argued that the lack of ventilation raise concerns for the prisoners physical and mental health and violate their right to bodily integrity, rights derived from the prisoners' constitutional right to dignity. In addition, the ventilation conditions in these two prisons do not meet the minimum standards for individual well-being and dignity as required by Israeli law and international law. Attorney Ayoub stressed that these conditions rise to the level of constituting ill-treatment of the prisoners - both Palestinian political prisoners classified as "security prisoners" by Israel and criminal prisoners - contrary to the international norms established by the Convention Against Torture (CAT), which prohibit the cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners. Israel ratified CAT in 1991.

The letter (Hebrew)

THIS PROJECT IS FUNDED BY THE EUROPEAN UNION JOINT PROJECT OF ADALAH, AL MEZAN (GAZA) AND PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS-ISRAEL