BEIRUT: Caretaker Interior Minister Raya El Hassan said that she hoped to change the “whole concept of prisons” during the launch of the National Plan for Prisons in the North Thursday.

“Our primary goal is to transform prisons from punitive departments to rehabilitation institutions,” Hassan said in a televised speech at the Bar Association in Tripoli.

Hassan underscored that “from the first day” of assuming her role as interior minister, she has aimed to create “a road map to improve the prison situation to adhere to the minimum human rights standards.”

Hassan said the road map aims to tackle the main issues that have long plagued Lebanon’s prisons, first among which was overcrowding. The other challenges include integrating prisoners into society, ensuring the protection of juvenile and female prisoners’ rights and creating facilities that comply with international standards.

The head of the Tripoli Bar Association, Mohammad Mrad, also stressed the importance of addressing chronic overcrowding in prisons, which he said “inevitably makes them inhumane.”

In late December, 750 lawyers visited 25 prisons as part of an initiative spearheaded by the newly elected head of the Beirut Bar Association Melhem Khalaf and the association’s council.

The visit sought to inspect the prisoners’ legal situations, informing them of their rights as prisoners as well as getting a better idea of their needs and conditions in the prison.

A lawyer told The Daily Star at the time that Block B in Roumieh prison was built inevitably to hold around 300 inmates, but currently holds around 700. Block B is a special wing for Islamist inmates being held on terrorism charges.

Mrad said it was essential that the Bar Association work alongside the Justice and Interior ministries to speed up judicial processes that often keep suspects in detention for long periods as they await trial.

He called on the Justice Ministry and the international community to contribute to the Bar Association’s budget to support prisoners “with humanity.”