Iran-HRM – Hundreds of prisoners at the Greater Tehran Penitentiary face severe water shortages despite the outbreak of the coronavirus in the prison.
As of Friday, June 19, the water of the ward 5 of this prison has been cut off, and the prisoners in this part of the prison are also deprived of drinking water.
Emergency water was also cut off on Friday, and prison officials locked the doors of the ward’s halls to prevent the prisoners from protesting.
Hot water has been cut off in some prison wards for more than two weeks.
A source close to the family of one of the prisoners in the prison explained: “Lack of hot water has become a problem, especially for elderly prisoners some of whom have caught a cold due to bathing in cold water. On the other hand, drinking water has now run out in Ward 5, and the situation is much worse for prisoners than before.”
There have previously been common complaints of lack of water in this facility. Prison water for showers is sometimes cut off for 17 to 18 hours.
Baths can only be used for four to six hours a day, so many inmates cannot use the bathroom for two to five months.
The situation gets worse with the onset of hot weather.
Since the beginning of last week, prison water have been connected only for two hours a day, and most of the hours it is completely cut off.
The water wells of this prison are only 100 meters away from an industrial livestock complex and the town of Hassan Abad where many industrial sites are located. As a result, the drinking water of the Greater Tehran Prison is mixed with sewage water and extremely contaminated.
Meanwhile, the number of prisoners infected with the coronavirus is increasing due to the overcrowded, unhygienic and unsanitary prison conditions. Some 52 prisoners in ward 1 have contracted the virus while several have died.
There is only one clinic in the prison but most of the day, there are no doctors or nurses.
Every three days, only three people from each room of 20 are selected to go to the clinic. Without a doctor’s or nurse’s examination, these people only receive a pill and returned to the ward.
Prisoners with diseases such as HIV and hepatitis live in a separate hall that’s ill-equipped for medical treatment. The ill prisoners share toilets and bathrooms with the other prisoners.
Since the first days of the coronavirus outbreak in Iran, the Iranian regime chose cover-up and inaction. It has been continuing its policy of downplaying the crisis. The regime forced people back to work, refused to release all prisoners or a considerable number of them, yet without any confirmation bragged about releasing 85,000 prisoners. In addition, the regime quickly returned those few people released on furlough to prisons, creating even higher risks for the prisoners inside prison and it refused to even quarantine the rearrested inmates.
The regime’s negligence in handling the coronavirus outbreak in Iranian prisons, resulted in dozens of prison riots across Iran.