On the date of April 10th of this year, the head of the judiciary announced that it is planned for Rajai Shahr prison, located in the city of Karaj, to be closed and relocated to another location. They cited the reason for this decision as the prison being located within the city of Karaj. However, it does not seem to be the only reason. In any case, Rajai Shahr prison is one of the most notorious prisons in the country. The massacres of the 1990s took place in this prison, formerly known as Gohardasht. Over the years, many prisoners were executed in this prison on charges related to “drugs” or “waging war” and “corruption on earth”. This prison has witnessed protests by prisoners inside and gatherings of their families outside. Every time a prisoner is scheduled to be executed, families and some people gather outside the prison. These gatherings are considered a security challenge for the government. Perhaps

The purpose of imprisonment and the attitude of Iranian authorities towards it.

In a brief definition, it can be said that a prison is a place where individuals sentenced to imprisonment serve their sentence. Detention centers are also places where a person is held temporarily on the orders of judicial authorities in the form of temporary detention. Prisons have different types, including closed and semi-open. Detention centers are also divided into law enforcement and security detention centers. There have been many discussions throughout history about the purpose of imprisonment and why prisoners are held in prison, but modern criminology teaches us that the main goal of imprisonment should be to keep the criminal away from society and rehabilitate them. Therefore, a vengeful view towards prisoners is not acceptable. For this reason, a prisoner should only be deprived of their freedom, not their other rights. That is why imprisonment is referred to as a restrictive or freedom-depriving punishment. In this regard, for example, the right to health, access to health services, access to information, or even the right to freedom of

Regulation instead of law

The management of prisons in Iran is based on regulations that are approved by the head of the judiciary. The most important of these are the executive regulations of the Prison Organization, the executive regulations for the management of security detention centers, and the regulations for the establishment, management, and supervision of correctional facilities. However, fundamental issues related to prisons must be determined by laws passed by the parliament. Laws are usually more thoroughly reviewed and take into account the opinions of many, while regulations are subject to the personal tastes of the approving authority, which sets the framework for the issue. On the other hand, the legal system of Iran does not allow for objections to the decisions of the head of the judiciary in the Administrative Court of Justice. In other words, the head of the judiciary regulates prison regulations through executive regulations, while no authority can oversee them or invalidate them if they are in conflict with the laws.

Loss of Control over Prisons

In Iran, the organization of prisons and correctional and educational measures is under the jurisdiction of the judiciary. In the laws and regulations of the country, there is no provision for any external oversight of prisons outside of this authority. In the past, even prison officials have prevented members of parliament and even the president from entering Evin prison. In other words, no institution has the right to investigate and inspect prisons. It is obvious that in such a system, officials will exercise their own preferences in managing prisons without fear of being held accountable, and they will not be concerned about committing illegal acts.

Traditional and unscientific approach to prison

The science of prison management, which emerged after the French Revolution in the late 1970s, changed the traditional view of prisons. This science later, along with the teachings of criminology, was able to propose methods for prison management. In other words, prisons must now be managed within a scientific framework. However, what we see in Iran is that prisons are managed based on traditional methods. According to relevant officials, a prison is a place where convicts are simply held and released after a period of time. However, from a scientific perspective, a prison is a place where convicts are integrated into society and their dangerous state is eliminated. If we pay attention, the judiciary in Iran does not provide any statistics that are useful for research. Even the exact number of prisoners is not known. It is not clear what percentage of prisoners are repeat offenders in prison, and it is not known what effect conditional release or, for example, open verdicts have on the behavior of convicts.

All of these cases show that the Iranian government does not pay attention to the issue of prisons as a subject that should always be under investigation.