It is imperative that MEW immediately issues a study showing that using LED lights will annually save KD 900 million and put it into practice in order to change our concept and culture of consumption. In an interview with the interior ministry's assistant undersecretary for correctional facilities and law enforcement Maj Gen Khaled Al-Deyyeen, a reporter talked about various practices at the central prison and detention centers like Talha.

Deyyeen remarkably described the prison as a five-star jail, and this generated a great deal of sarcasm on social media networks, where bloggers criticized the prison's management and reminded of the many previous incidents and practices that violate prison laws. I personally find the five-star description a proper one, because after all, the main purpose of prisons is to act as correctional facilities and not places of revenge. We hope the new building would be better in both bricks and staff. However, the interview revealed many mistakes that will probably be carried over to the new building.

Thanks to the frantic efforts exerted by members of the parliamentary human rights committees in previous parliaments, such as Mohammed Al-Mershad, Ahmed Al-Nassar, Abdul Mohsen Jamal and others and the efforts of consecutive prison wardens, situations at the central prison have undoubtedly changed compared to those before the invasion. Unfortunately, what is socially happening seems to surpass the prison's management to achieve the goal of the law, as Kuwait has turned into a place for drug dealing, trafficking and transport, in addition to the spread of bribery and corruption.

Deyyeen did not deny that some inmates get out with more criminal behaviors they learn in prison, that a high percentage of them go back to committing the same crimes, that drugs and mobile phones are being smuggled to those behind bars and that many ex-cons find trouble finding jobs. This has existed since the beginning of the 1990s, which reflect the prison's need for development. The same has been said about Talha detention center for two decades, where some deportees are detained for over a month and suffer from lack of recreation, are unable to file complaints and lack of translators for non-Arab deportees.

To have a five-star prison is very positive for the state and would make as proud of the welfare prisoners get, as in many other countries. Yet, the problem will always remain in the people running this facility and how acquainted they are with modern technology and security sciences needed to turn a prison into a correctional facility. - Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Jarida

By Mudaffar Abdullah