The Daily Star - Authorities ease burden on Lebanese jails - April 25, 2011

By Rima Aboulmona

The Daily Star BEIRUT: Lebanese authorities have released Arab and foreign inmates in a bid to lessen the burden of overcrowding at Lebanese prisons, a statement by the General Security said Sunday. The statement by the General Directorate of the General Security said 478 Arab and foreign prisoners were released from Lebanese detention centers, 205 of whom had been deported in coordination with respective embassies. The statement said another 213 Arab and foreign inmates who had completed their official prison terms were put under the custody of the General Security. “To date, no Arab or foreign prisoners who have completed their prison term remain in Lebanese jails,” the statement said. Lebanese prisons are overcrowded and mismanaged at many levels. Caretaker Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar has disclosed that of the 5,511 individuals spread across Lebanon’s 23 prisons, just 1,655 (30 percent) have been convicted of a crime. Four inmates died last month in a series of riots at the notorious Roumieh prison complex, north of Beirut. Of Roumieh’s estimated 3,700 detainees, 721 have been convicted. Various legal, social and cultural factors add to the problem.