A massive iron gate slides open. Beyond it, rows of grimy, barred windows tower above a grey courtyard. Old blankets drape as sunshields over some, drying clothes hang from others, and a lone hand waves from a grilled window.
This is Roumieh prison, Lebanon’s largest men’s jail. It is a decaying, forbidding place that sometimes holds three times its intended capacity of 1,050 inmates. Since Lebanon’s economic collapse it has been starved of needed funding.
News reports have drawn attention to the rationing of electricity, poor hygiene, water shortages and inedible food. Prisoners also have to pay for their own medical care – or do without.
