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Was going through the Khaleej times website. Noted these two headline links in the national section. (same date 10/12/2008).

UAE Jails Treat Inmates with Dignity
DUBAI - UAE jails and detention centres treat inmates as guests and human beings in need of rehabilitation, a UAE Human Rights Association official said.........

and the following:

Overcrowded Cells
Overcrowding, unhygienic conditions and violence are plaguing Al Rashidiya detention centre as authorities struggle to cope with the increasing number of detainees in the lock-ups of Bur Dubai police station, Khaleej Times has learnt. On the eve of Eid, Al Rashidiya detention centre, which has the capacity to have only 40 people, was crammed with more than 230 inmates.........

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So one hand, you say they are treated with respect and on the other, cram 230 inmates in cells meant for 40. Conflicting headlines? I wonder who is right?

Why don't you link the pages so we can see the articles?

Captain Australia wrote:Why don't you link the pages so we can see the articles?

Hey Captain,

It won't hurt to let your fingers do a few more keyboard strokes! For God's sake, the guy gave you the name of the newspaper and the date. Not that difficult to find!

I did check the newspaper's web site, and found the 2 articles.

One article is quoting a UAE official who, as expected, would say everything is fine and dandy. We've got problems?? What problems???

The other is an investigative report by a KT reporter of the deplorable conditions at Al Rashidiya Detention Centre!

There is really no conflict between the 2 articles. The 230 inmates, who are crammed in the rooms with a 40-inmates capacity, are still treated with dignity, which probably means they get fed and they are not beaten!

They clearly need more detention facilities to ease these severe overcrowding conditions!

The second article is correct. My friend spent two days in Rashidya and said it was terrible. He said there were 250 people crammed in a little room. Only one toilet which was nothing more than a hole in the ground and the one shower was in the same stall as the toilet. twice a day they put a big bucket of slop in the middle of the room and everyone fights over it to get a bite to eat. twin size matresses with six people per bed. And the worst part, every person in there smoked and there was no fresh air. He said he slept next to the south african guy who killed his girlfriend because he was the cleanest guy in there!

Prison is not supposed to be a holiday camp. The Rashidiya 'detention' centre is just that, a holding area between police cells and prison proper. Unfortunately the legal system here is notoriously slow and people end up there for months. I know of some Russian guys who were held there for 6 months, they were found innocent in the court, but their employer had cancelled their visas so when the were released, they were banged straight back up again as being 'illegal immigrants'! Another 4 months later, they were sent home in the clothes they were originally arrested in (track suits) to temperatures of -20!

The police station holding tanks are full, the detention centre is full and I hear the prisons are bulging at the seams. But there is no crime in Dubai? Of course not, the police are obviously so efficient they scoop them all up...guilty or innocent!

If you do the crime, you do the time.
If you don't do the crime, they make you do the time to stop you from thinking about doing the crime!



Knight

Dubai Knight wrote:If you do the crime, you do the time.
If you don't do the crime, they make you do the time to stop you from thinking about doing the crime!

hahahaha good one

A friend of mine spent 5 days in Sharjah detention centre a few years ago. His problem was his very friquent God name and surname.
For examle if he were British he could be John Smith.

So he was arrested in Sharjah airport on departure because his God name, surname and nationality totally matched records of a real suspect.

The only descrepancy was in their ages - the suspect was 15 years older.

He told me later that for his British cell-mate the stay was much shorter (only a few hours) due to very efficient actions of the UK consulate.

As for conditions they were rather uncomfortable but surprisingly not so terrible as in the article about Rashidia due to there were different cells for Muslims and non-muslim.
So his cell was not so overcrowded probably owing to nigligible Christian population in Sharjah. Anyway he had shift sleepping...

As for Dubai I listened different inf.: one girl told me that her stay was like in a scout camp for her but this inf. is probably eather outdated or women have better conditions then men.