Current News: Going To Israeli Jail Guide

(Note: If it could be said of any post, that I know it from first hand-experience, it would be of this! Thirteen years as full-time staff officer in the Israeli Prison Service…. As their incarceration moves on, we’ll post further articles.)

This week, hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Jewish rioters have been protesting in the streets of Israel. Dozens of them, couples, husbands and their wives, are on their way to incarceration in Israeli prisons.

The catalyst for all this is a recent Israeli Supreme Court’s decision. That highly contested judgement laid out that the segregation in the Emanuel municipality girls’ school, where this whole episode began, is illegal. Ashkenazi parents had been strictly-enforcing a classroom policy of separation—between their own daughters and other female students who were of Sefardi background. The parents attorneys claimed in court it wasn’t an issue of racism, rather one of standards, specifically that the level of religiosity in the Sefardi homes wasn’t up to par with their own.

As too many arguments in the Middle East, this one didn’t blow over, it blew up, into a full-blown and fiery national debate. A vicious battle as old as the modern country itself: Can the secular state claim, justifiably or, in this case, forcibly, any right to interfere with the internal workings of the religious community, or is that the sole domain of the Rabbis?

Now, a few dozen defiant couples will be experiencing a part of Israel, they never imagined existed: The Israeli Prison Service, I.P.S.

Until recently, I worked full time, for over thirteen years as a staff officer, a Major, in the I.P.S. Following, is what they can expect, and what they need to know

All incarceration begins with a judicial decision. We’re past that.

Next, the sentenced parties voluntarily appear at the infamous “Abu Kabir,” a Jerusalem police station, to begin their sentences. (As of this writing, a number of them are evading incarceration. This is strongly not recommended, for when they are finally apprehended, experience shows that the courts will come down heavily on them, if for nothing more than to make a an example of them.)

From Abu Kabir, they will be truck out early the next morning. During transport, the women will be hand- and foot-cuffed and driven to Neve Tirzah women’s prison. The men will be similarly bound—hand and foot—and transported to Nitzan prison. Both are inside the famous Ayalon Prison compound in Ramla. This is where Nazi war criminal Adolph Eichmann was held and ultimately executed by hanging, home for decades of Hertzel Avitan, one of Israel’s most notorious criminals, and it presently holds innumerable Hamas, Hizballah and United Jihad Front murderers. Make no mistake about it: Ayalon prison compound is maximum security.

Passing through one security gate after another, just entering the compound will take upwards of a half an hour,. The compound is a few hundred yard rectangle encompassed by high, two foot thick, concrete walls, topped with concertina wire and armed guard towers.

After driving up to the entrance of Nitzan Prison (Neve Tirzah for the women) they then will be marched into the buildings, again, one security gate after another, their cuffs will be removed, and they will be locked up in holding cells, each containing around thirty “common criminals.”

There will be a deafening over-abundance of extremely disconcerting noises: blasting loudspeakers, cell doors slamming constantly throughout the prison, guards yelling, Middle Eastern music filling the air. The smells will be a heavy aromatic cacophony of cigarette smoke, cooking (inmates cook in their cells), mid-summer Mediterranean perspiration (and other bodily excrements).

At this point, they need to keep their cool. Everybody is busy in prison. The new inmates should not answer the guards back. The harried guards are just doing their job, and if they can help the new arrivals, e.g. bringing some cold water, explaining what’s going on, they will.

Any personal belongings these fresh inmates have brought with them will be inspected, article by article. Money, and any other items forbidden in prison will be bagged, stored and returned upon their release. Their bodies will be frisked.

For the next three hours, each will be interviewed by: a social worker, security officer, and a medical staffer. Each will speak with the new arrivals individually, seated across a small desk in a quiet room, and record all identifying information, any special dietary or psychological needs.

During processing, the local prison chaplain, will be available. He always ensures observant “guests” receive their religious needs, something required by law. This being a high profile case, he will be double careful to make sure these individuals get everything they need.

Following processing, usually within twenty-four hours, they will all be transported to the prison where they’ll sit out their term of sentencing. They will share cells with three to eight other inmates, most of whom will be repeat offenders, and not their first time in jail.

Now, few words to these men and women.

During incarceration, a number of people will be pivotal in your life. Here, I’ll list the major players.

The Cell Block officer, usually a Major, will interview you, privately, in his or her office, which is also located within a Cell Block. He will then assign your cell to you.

The Cell Block security guards work in shifts of twenty-four hours on, forty-eight hours off. Your direct contact during your entire waking day will be with them. They are your liaison to your Cell Block officer. If you have a problem, tell it to him or her.

The other people who will be involved in your life, albeit more peripherally, are these.

The head Inmate Officer, is one step higher up in the hierarchy, and reports directly to the warden on each of your well-beings. A social worker, two to an average Block of eighty inmates, will meet you at least once a week to see if there are any problems s/he can solve.

Finally, the other inmates, who you will be eating, sleeping and showering with. Do not look at them as dangerous opponents. Generally speaking, they have nothing to gain from you (though, be careful), they just want to get through their time.

Regarding all the guards and officers, here is my advice. In Israel, many of these men and women are educated, with at least a B.A. They arrived into positions of power, not because of brawn, but because the Israeli government decided they knew how to deal with people under stress in a professional and caring manner.

Remember, it was not these (I.P.S.) people who got you here. They, too, are not your enemy.

Every staffer you meet will be there for two purposes: One, to enforce the law by keeping inmates, duly tried by courts of law, in a secure and legal manner. Two, to do so in as compassionate, humane and peaceful manner as possible.

These people want the clean conscience, having treated everyone unfortunate enough to have fallen under their jurisdiction with honor and respect—when they go home to their own families at night.

All they wish for you is the same: To return, when it’s all over, with honor and peace to your families. Amen.

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