Prison shortage mars Palestinian security campaign

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NABLUS, West Bank (Reuters) - When a Palestinian law and order campaign started in the occupied West Bank late last year, Western advisers quickly realized they had a problem: Palestinian forces had no place to put all of their prisoners.

Many of the Palestinian Authority's prisons, some dating back to the Ottoman era, were destroyed by Israel after a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 and peace talks broke down.

The few prisons left and the dysfunctional judicial system, plagued by backlogs long before statehood talks were relaunched in November alongside the security crackdown, can't cope with the influx, Palestinian officials and their Western advisers say.

At Ramallah's civil penitentiary, a facility meant to hold no more than 180 inmates, there are 240 prisoners, according to the Palestinian attorney general.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/01/AR2008040100738.html