RIYADH, 26 January 2008 — Drug addicts account for 45 percent of inmates in Saudi jails, a high-ranking official in Riyadh told Al-Eqtisadiah business daily recently.

“The cause of the convictions of (about) 13,000 prisoners in Saudi jails is drug addiction while most of the crimes committed by other inmates are somehow or other related to drugs,” Director General of Prisons Maj. Gen. Ali Al-Harthy said at a meeting here last week.

Mufrij Al-Haqbani, secretary general of the National Committee for Combating Narcotic Drugs (NCCND), and his subordinate officials attended the meeting that was convened to establish ways to cure and rehabilitate drug addicts in prisons. According to Al-Harthy, these addicts are managing to maintain their habbits even behind bars.

“The prisoners tempt prison guards by various means to smuggle narcotics into jails,” he said. “Convicts are spending huge sums to have the drugs smuggled into the jail.

For example, a guard was recently offered SR12,000 to bring in a bag containing drugs. To his credit, he reported the matter to the authorities and the incident was used as an occasion for a sting operation to catch the guilty man.”

He put the ages of addicted prisoners at between 19 and 29.

The prison directorate has currently been supporting various awareness programs implemented by various agencies, Harthy said.

“The directorate is playing a significant role in reforming addicts by using programs to build separate homes for addicts who are undergoing treatment and their post-prison care,” the director said. He estimated the number of mentally ill people among the addicts at 50 percent. The mentally ill are being treated in various mental hospitals in the Kingdom, he said.

While he said that expatriate prisoners played a considerable role in aggravating the drug problem inside prisons, the jail director expressed concern about the apparent lack of interest displayed by Saudi prisoners in schemes beneficial to them.

In his comments, Mufrij Al-Haqbani offered all possible support of NCCND to schemes such as conducting studies on how drug addicts adjusted to prison life and the ways to find an effective solution to their problems.

The meeting also decided to entrust Col. Hayad Al-Haydar, assistant director general of prisons, and Abdul Ilah Al-Shareef, director of general administration, to implement preventive and rehabilitation programs.