Maasiyahu Prison


Maasiyahu Prison is a minimum-security prison in Ramle, Israel, run by the Israel Prison Service.

History

Prisoners who have proven responsible have access to various places of employment and education programs, the right to take vacations from prison, as well as rehabilitative treatment through various methods including therapy animals. Prisoners who have a history of problematic behavior are held under tighter security and are not permitted to take vacations. There is a special wing for religious inmates called the Torani wing, also known as "Beis Medrash Maasiyahu", where inmates spend most of the day praying and studying Torah and other sacred Jewish texts in two seminaries and do not have access to television and newspapers. The whole prison complex is located in the city of Ramla in the Central District of Israel.
In 2002, inmates declared a hunger strike to protest what they viewed as improper medical and legal treatment.
In 2004, public workers from the nearby town of Lod, who had not been paid in months, chained themselves to the gates of the prison in a public protest, demanding to be arrested so they could be fed the free prison food.
In 2005, a wing of the prison was converted to house those detained while protesting Sharon's plan to withdraw from 21 settlements in Gaza and another 4 in the West Bank. The new wing can house 900 detainees.

Notable inmates