 JEDDAH — The prison in Jizan is located in a rented house, according to a report in the Arabic daily Okaz. The daily quoted Major General Dr Ali Al Harithy, head of the Kingdom’s prison administration, as saying that the recent sensational escape of a thief and a sex offender from Jizan jail was because they were imprisoned in a house and not a secure prison.
| But they were very pious. |
General Al Harithy added that the escape was made easier by the fact that the prison is in fact a rented house and does not even have a proper watchtower. He said that the prisoners were detained for robbery and no one expected them to remove the iron sheet leading to the vent and reach the roof through the pipelines.
| It was held in place with sheet metal screws. The little ones. And duct tape. Looked secure to the Somali work crew that put it up. |
The prison, which is in a residential area and is surrounded by homes with families, apparently made the getaway easier for the two inmates. “The prison has houses all around, which only made the escape that much easier, he added.
| Apparently no one looks out the front window in Saoodiland. |
Now a widespread hunt has begun for the fugitives whose families are said to be assisting the prison officials.
Asked about how would such lax imprisonment be corrected, Al Harithy told Okaz about the government’s plans to invest nearly SR2 billion to create correction facilities outside towns and cities making it difficult for escapees to just blend into the crowd. “We have a five-year plan to build seven correction houses around the Kingdom at the cost of SR1.6 billion. We are working to develop current prisons as they are located inside the cities. We will build detention centres at police stations in remote areas to replace rented buildings,” he said.
| Those are for the common folk. Princes will be kept in palaces. |
Amongst the cities proposed to receive their own state-of-the-art prisons are the coastal city of Jeddah and the Kingdom’s capital, Riyadh. “Jeddah, Riyadh, Madinah, Namas, Qurriyat, and Beesh are first on the priority list for these correction facilities. We have already invited and received tenders for the projects,” Al Harithy added.
Despite the multi-million investment, he could not guarantee that another jailbreak like Jizan wouldn’t happen again. “There is no establishment without loopholes. Such things could always happen as changes occur in society as it develops. We have to be more vigilant, prepared and put proper measures in place to counter such happenings,” Al Harithy said.
| Which means you need to hire guards from outside Saoodi-controlled Arabia. |
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