Kurdistan Region prisons overcrowded, holding inmates far beyond capacity: Minister

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Prisons and correctional facilities in the Kurdistan Region are holding inmates far beyond their actual capacities, the labor and social affairs minister said on Thursday, warning that the crisis could pose serious risks to inmates.

The number of convicts in Erbil has reached nearly three times the facility's capacity, Kurdistan Region’s Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Kwestan Mohammed cautioned, adding that around 350 sentenced individuals are being held at police stations waiting for space in the correctional facilities.

“The major correctional facilities in Erbil, Sulaimani, and Duhok were built to accommodate only 909 inmates each,” Mohammed said, noting that the actual number of prisoners far exceeds that capacity. “Currently, we have 1,736 convicts in Sulaimani, 2,216 in Erbil, and 1,449 in Duhok,” she said.

For her part, Tavga Omer, the general director of legal affairs for the Kurdistan Region's human rights commission, stated that the current infrastructure for correctional facilities in the Kurdistan Region is unsuitable, "because the capacity of these centers is not at the level required to handle such a large number of convicts."

The Kurdistan Region has six correctional facilities for adults, women, and children with a combined capacity of 3,300 inmates. However, the facilities are severely overwhelmed, and currently hold around 6,000 people.

Omer stated that the high number of convicts "has called the effectiveness of the rehabilitation system within these facilities into question."

Mohammed stressed that the problem extends beyond sleeping space, noting that the facilities’ infrastructure-built in 2010-was not designed to accommodate such high inmate numbers.

"The schools, hospitals, libraries, and halls were all designed for 909 people," the minister said, adding that staffing levels for social and psychological specialists were also set according to those original standards.

"Currently, the burden on the staff has increased significantly, which has caused the reform and rehabilitation process to move slowly," she said.

One consequence of the overcrowding, the minister said, is that convicted prisoners are being kept in detention and transfer facilities run by the ministry of interior. In Erbil alone, 350 inmates who have been tried and sentenced remain in police stations due to a lack of space in adult correctional facilities, according to the minister.

"This is a violation of the convicts' rights. We have an agreement that whenever a certain number of inmates are released-for example, 10 people-we then request 10 others to be sent to us from the police stations," said Mohammed.

However, general amnesty law could significantly ease the burden. Mohammed expressed optimism that the Kurdistan Region’s legislature would work on it during its first session.

"We predict that the General Amnesty Law will approximately cover half of the convicts," said Mohammed.

Another burden on the facilities is the large number of convicted felons with death penalties.

According to Omar, there are 500 prisoners in the Kurdistan Region’s correctional facilities who have been sentenced to death.

"Until now, the legal status of these individuals remains unclear because the death penalty is not being carried out in the Kurdistan Region," she said.

To address the overcrowding issue at its root, the ministry of labor has proposed building a large correctional facility with a capacity for 5,000 inmates.

“Land has been allocated for the project,” the social affairs minister said, “but the cost is $50 million, and the budget has not been provided yet.”