Recommendations

Accede to and ratify the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
Set up an independent domestic prison inspection mechanism, meeting the requirements set out in the Optional Protocol, and strengthen the powers of the National Center for Human Rights to carry out such inspections.

Assume jurisdiction over crimes in prison and prosecute officials and prisoners in civilian courts.
Set up within the Ministry of Justice a unit of trained prosecutors who regularly visit prisons, at least once a week, inspect all wards, and receive prisoner complaints. These prosecutors must have the powers to enter at any time and request to speak to any prisoner.
Set up an independent mechanism allowing prisoners to submit complaints without the knowledge of prison guards directly responsible for them.

Ensure civilian prosecutors and courts assume jurisdiction over crimes of torture and ill-treatment committed by PSD officers against civilians.
Take measures to remove officials suspected or accused of crimes involving prisoners from contact with prisoners or from positions in which they can improperly influence the investigation.
Routinely keep video recordings in prison for a specified period and keep copies of the recordings with an official body not linked to the prison service for safekeeping.
Take measures to protect prisoners who testify as witnesses against officers or fellow prisoners.

Grant Jordanian and international human rights organizations open access to prisons, including return visits, to safeguard against guards retaliating against prisoners for speaking to human rights organizations.
Enable prisoners to call unsupervised the hotline at the National Center for Human Rights at any time.
Conduct investigations into prison abuse transparently. In a periodic, public report, provide details about investigations into abuse in prisons, including the number, the charges, the evidence, and the result.
Build better sanitary facilities in the prisons, install a sufficient number of telephones so that prisoners can make calls at any time to their lawyers, family members, or the National Center for Human Rights.
Improve the food given inmates and provide safe, running drinking water at all times.
Do not use the super-maximum security facility under construction, Muwaqqar II, to keep Islamist, or any other prisoners, in solitary confinement for periods longer than the seven days currently allowed under Jordanian law, following individual assessments, and only if they are deemed to be violent and a danger to themselves or others.

Increase the number of doctors working in prison and provide at least 24 hour coverage of nurses.
Routinely check a prisoner’s health when entering and exiting prison. Inspect the wards of the prison to ensure patients do not have to submit a request to see the doctor via a guard.
Provide information on HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted diseases (STD), distribute condoms free of charge, and conduct tests for HIV and STDs only with the informed consent of the prisoner.
Allow prisoners to seek a second medical opinion.
Increase the number of psychologists or psychiatrists working in prisons and ensure they inspect the wards to allow prisoners easier access to them.

Include prison reform and eradication of torture in Jordan in the development assistance provided to Jordan.
Condition such funding on the transfer of jurisdiction over torture to civilian prosecutors and courts and the establishment of effective investigations independent of the prison administration into abuses committed by prison officials.
Ensure no funding goes toward the operation or administration of the super-maximum prison Muwaqqar II, should it be operated as a long-term solitary confinement facility.
Ensure that US and EU government officials and politicians visiting Jordan are briefed on the state of Jordanian compliance with human rights and its efforts and transparency in addressing human rights violations in prisons and instructed to raise these concerns systematically.
Speak out publicly when Jordan lags in taking steps to come into compliance with international human rights norms, and impose the targeted withholding of parts of the development aidto Jordan in response to specific failures to take rapid steps to address gaps in compliance.

October 2008