Does reduced cell space for Shin Bet prisoners violate High Court ruling?
Even if Shin Bet detainees may have less cell space, it would be for a shorter period, and once they are indicted, they will be given more cell space.
By YONAH JEREMY BOBAn Israeli prison guard is seen through a gate at Maasiyahu prison near Ramle, south of Tel Aviv, Israel February 15, 2016. Former Israeli Prime Minister Olmert begins his 19-month prison sentence at Maasiyahu prison on Monday, making him the first former head of government in Israel to go to prison(photo credit: BAZ RATNER/REUTERS)
The Knesset was set to vote on a first reading of a bill on Wednesday that would exempt the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) from a 2017 High Court of Justice ruling requiring cells for all prisoners to meet minimum space requirements.Is the bill a problematic attempt to circumvent the prior High Court ruling, or is it a necessary, narrowly-tailored security move that tries to respect the judicial guidelines as much as possible?The broader issue nevertheless challenges the entire prison system.Since the 2017 ruling, the High Court has pressed the prison system to completely revamp, build new facilities and alter policies to lead to early releases for certain categories of prisoners in order to meet the minimum international standard so that every prisoner has at least 4.5 square meters of cell space.Although the government has accepted the decision and has worked in the last few years towards meeting the High Court ruling with some success, many prisoners still have substantially less space than required.In its initial response to the ruling which gave it 18 months to make changes, the Israel Prisons Service (IPS) forecast that it might not come into complete compliance before 2027 because it would take that long to allocate the necessary funding to build new facilities.Into this broader debate comes the Shin Bet issue which involves a much smaller number of detainees, generally, those still being questioned pending indictment.This means that even if Shin Bet detainees may have less cell space, it would be for a shorter period, and once they are indicted, they will be given more cell space.The Jerusalem Post has learned that the Justice Ministry supports the Shin Bet’s request for a bill which will allow it exemptions in certain circumstances.Sources have indicated to the Post that the agency has unique needs for its detention centers based on the different tactics it uses for security interrogations, as opposed to the police.Further, the Shin Bet cannot operate in any public area, and building new facilities is both more sensitive and more complex.Sources also say that while the police have been able to grant early releases to certain lower-grade criminals in order to free up more cell space for other prisoners, the Shin Bet cannot simply release security prisoners, especially since many of them are about to be indicted.Finally, the police have many facilities and can move prisoners around in a variety of ways between their facilities to meet the minimum standard, but the Shin Bet has a much smaller number of facilities and cells and this limits its flexibility.Haaretz was the first to report on the initiative, which is expected to have wide support from the country’s larger parties, though it may face limited opposition from some smaller parties on the political Left.According to the bill, the Shin Bet must strive to meet the minimum cell space standard where possible, but the prime minister may authorize exemptions.There will be oversight by the prime minister, the attorney-general and a joint committee of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee along with the Ministerial Committee for the Shin Bet.Aspects of the exemptions will be reported at least on an annual basis and other aspects will be reported twice per year.The law will last for three years with an option for the justice minister to extend it twice, for two years each time.In practical terms, this means the Shin Bet is not expected to comply with the High Court’s order before 2024 at the earliest and quite possibly not until 2028.Since the High Court rejected the IPS’s initial offer to comply by 2027 as inadequate, and said such a delay would be in contempt of the court’s order, the petitioners pushing for all detainees to get the minimum cell space view the bill as an end-run on the court’s authority.Further, critics are concerned that the Shin Bet will use the issue to place improper pressure on detainees along with a variety of other aggressive measures used by the agency.However, sources pointed out that the High Court had already separated how it would treat the Shin Bet versus the pressure it put on the IPS, noting that the agency has special issues in its handling of terror suspects.In fact, it has already given the Shin Bet a year longer than the IPS to comply with its ruling.Despite this extension, sources said that the Shin Bet wanted to be forthright with the court and commit to a timeline it believed was attainable, instead of asking for piecemeal extensions each year based on unrealistic timelines.The initial push for the law to grant a longer extension, but with oversight, came from Shin Bet Director Nadav Argaman, who is widely respected by the main political parties as focused solely on serious security considerations.
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