The Religious Policeman

I refer of course to our beloved Interior Minister.

Naif Tells Wardens to Take Good Care of Prisoners

JEDDAH, 8 March 2004 — Interior Minister Prince Naif has called upon prison wardens in various parts of the country to treat their prisoners well and exert greater efforts to ensure better management of prisons.

The mind boggles. Does that mean they'll change the bedclothes at least once a month? Will the prisoners get to select their own cockroaches to add to their food? Will they just tickle the soles of their feet when they are upside down?

Here's just a short list of what prisoners would like:
- a defined length of sentence, with published conditions for parole.
- visiting rights for families
- access to lawyers
- decent food, minus cockroaches
- decent clean bedding
- books and writing materials
- air conditioning (particularly when the temperature gets near 125)

and after that we'll start to talk about occupational traininng etc.