The scandals of Roumieh Prison … Prisoners of forced labor!

Under the title "Prisoners of forced labor!" "A few days ago, a law was published to amend the basic penal code to replace some of the sanctions imposed on free social work," wrote Rajana Diamah in the newspaper Al Akhbar. This was flawed, starting with the fact that only 320 of the 9,000 sentenced do not end up replacing the prison sentence by "hard labor" with "work of general interest".

Finally, one of these laws was published "Exotic". A seven-article law amending certain articles of the Basic Criminal Code in order to replace the sentence "of up to one year imprisonment (with the exception of repetition)" by a public service supported by the prisoner outside the bars of the prison. This is "the first achievement," says lawyer Lara Saadeh, who worked on the drafting of the law. "The prisoner has the opportunity to know the value of life and to perform an important task in the interest of the society." According to him, he is the missing part of the prison's "function" in rehabilitating an inmate. There is another "logic" for such laws, which is to reduce the costs borne by the Ministry of Justice and to solve the problem of prison overcrowding, "especially as we lack a number of prisons, especially in the regions, while the existing ones are not qualified ". This "bug" often leads to "the imprisonment of a person punished for a regular crime with dangerous suspects".

However, in terms of the importance of success, there are gaps that make it legally "unused" in the opinion of the Prisons Directorate. It does not come from the idea, but from the reality that supposes another formulation. In terms of numbers and reduction of overcrowding, this measure will include only 320 people (sentenced to less than one year and a court record), which is not the case number. The 9,000 are sentenced and detained, of which 6,854 are in 24 prisons of the internal security forces. In addition to these, more than 2,000 add to goggles, military posts, army and public safety. Between nine thousand and 3667 prisoners in Rumieh prison alone. This prison, which had been created with a capacity of "1,400 people at most, now has three times more capacity and has reached, at certain times, up to 5,000 prisoners," said the chairman of the commission. Parliamentary Human Rights, Michel Moussa. All this happens in the presence of "chronic" proposals to increase the number of prisons and especially in the parties to relieve central prisons. But there are only suggestions … unless it is necessary to put "prisoners in the proposals," according to Judge Raja Abi Nader, of the Prisons Directorate.

It is true that the law was promulgated "as modified by the Committee on Administration and Justice" according to its happiness, but that, despite its importance, it only concerns amendments to the Basic Criminal Code, which was modified dozens of years ago. No "minimal" change is necessary as all laws need to be reformulated to fit our times, not just the Penal Code.
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