Lebanon’s prisons

I took these photographs between 2009 and 2011. While working for several years in photojournalism, I heard about many unfair situations related to prisoners and justice. I wanted to document realities inside prisons and to reveal prisoners’ conditions and daily life. Accessing prison was really hard and very exceptional since the authorities don’t allow (almost) any access for journalists. Every time a journalist wants to make a report or a news topic about prisons, the authorities work on making it almost impossible to visit, or to go inside.

The six images I am sharing here were all taken inside Roumieh prison. It is the country’s largest prison and it holds three times more prisoners than of its capacity.

Facilities differ from one another when it comes to hygiene, cell space, equipment, occupancy, food quality, and the atmosphere and the behavior of prison guards. But overall, there is no order nor hygiene in all Lebanese prisons. They are overcrowded. The government has neglected the primary needs of prisoners for a long time. Many of them have not yet been sentenced. They are awaiting trial. Others have already exceeded the length of the sentence incurred, even though it has not yet been delivered. And they are still waiting, handcuffed.