From the Liveblog of
Sunday, July 28, 2024
MKs extend temporary measures to control growing prison population
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
In their final votes prior to the start of the Knesset recess, lawmakers pass two bills extending two temporary measures regulating the imprisonment of unlawful combatants and the use of expanded administrative release in order to control the country’s rapidly growing prison population.
The first bill, approved in its third reading 14-3, extends for four months a temporary order detailing how long those defined by law as illegal combatants may be held before meeting an attorney or being granted a hearing before a judge. Under the amended extension, the maximum period in which a district judge may prevent such a prisoner from meeting with a lawyer is reduced from 90 to 75 days. Temporary confinement orders will also need to be renewed more frequently.
The second bill passes 12-3 and extends an order allowing the Prison Service commissioner to commute sentences should prison capacity exceed the legally mandated limit, except for inmates convicted of violent crimes and security prisoners. The bill further maintains the incarceration standard, the maximum prison population, at 14,500.
Despite this, there are reportedly 21,000 prisoners currently being held in Israeli prisons.
Last year, the Knesset approved an incarceration emergency, allowing the country’s correctional system to continue housing prisoners in what would otherwise be considered illegally cramped conditions.
