Inmates do forced labor in the Great Tehran Penitentiary. This is according to recent reports from inside Iran.
Some of the supervisors and prison guards in Ward 5 of the Great Tehran Penitentiary take advantage of the inmates who are in jail for selling alcoholic beverages.
There are more than 1500 inmates in the Great Tehran Penitentiary (Fashafuyeh) who have been jailed for selling alcoholic beverages. Most of them are workers who after two shifts of work, are not able to provide for the minimum needs of their families and have chosen sale of alcoholic drinks as their third job.
Those who are in jail for selling alcoholic drinks are supposed to be jailed in Ward 4 where conditions are much worse than in Ward 5.
So, prison guards and supervisors take advantage of the said inmates, threatening to send them to Ward 4, if they don’t do their work.
The guards responsible for head counts, for distributing methadone, etc. force the prisoners to do their job for them.
The night supervisor makes these inmates stay awake at nights and do his job for him, without getting paid for it. The night supervisor receives 6 million tomans per month and one of his duties is to stay awake at night. But he forces and intimidates the inmates to do this, threatening to send them to Ward 4 if they do not do their work, well. In order to avoid being sent to Ward 4, the inmates also stay awake at night watching out the ward without receiving any wages. They have to endure mistreatment and blames of the guards.
Since the Great Tehran Penitentiary is out of town, the inspectors of the Prosecutor’s Office do not go there for inspection, and there is no control over the prison authorities and guards’ behavior and conduct in this prison.
Taking sick inmates to the dispensary, head counts, watching the ward, inspection of prisoners, and frisking prisoners upon entering or leaving the wards.
They also force inmates to do their personal work, like washing their clothes, cooking for them, doing their dishes, cleaning their bedrooms, etc.
Many prisoners work in the workshops without receiving wages.
Another form of taking advantage of prisoners is done by the companies that provide goods for prisoners.
Guards don’t take the clothes families bring for the inmates, so that they are forced to buy the clothes they need from the prison store. The stores sell T-shirts worth 20,000 tomans for 90,000 tomans. A pair pants worth 30,000 tomans outside, is sold for 130,000 tomans.
Cigarettes are smuggled. Their date of consumption is expired but they are sold for three times the actual price to prisoners. These cigarettes are of very low quality.
The catastrophe is that the law enforcement agents who are supposed to enforce the law are actually the ones who violate the law.
