In 2016, the UN Committee against Torture reported a significant shortage of medication: painkillers, treatments for urological diseases, treatments for high cholesterol, etc. The Committee also noted shortages of medical supplies such as sterile gauze. It highlighted the authorities’ reliance on civil society organisations to make up for these shortcomings.¹
Since 2019, the socio-economic crisis in Lebanon has been causing a shortage of medicines throughout the country, including in prisons. Prisoners often receive lower doses than what is prescribed to them.

Prisoners at Roumieh prison with chronic illnesses have signalled that they must present a new prescription every month to receive their medication. This requirement is effectively a barrier to necessary treatment for the prisoners due to the insufficient number of doctors available. The pharmacy in this facility is virtually empty. It rarely has first aid supplies.

HIV testing is often mandatory upon arrival in prison. The methods used do not follow the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations. The WHO recommends systematic screening of prisoners with their informed consent and a sharing of results.

Little information on HIV/AIDS is provided to prisoners. No psychological support is available. Isolation and increased stigma, combined with imprisonment, have an adverse effect on the mental and social well-being of people living with HIV/AIDS. Their freedom of movement and contact with other prisoners, family, and friends is restricted.¹ They are held in the so-called “blue building” in Roumieh which is reserved for people with mental health problems. In this facility, they do not receive the periodic medical examinations necessary to combat the illness. The correctional facility does not have a doctor on site. Checkups are performed every two months.

The authorities provide HIV/AIDS treatment for Lebanese prisoners. Foreign prisoners, who are not covered by the Lebanese health system, do not receive such treatment. Instead, they rely on the assistance of third-party organisations (UN agencies, International Committee of the Red Cross) for treatment.

A 2012 study reported that HIV-positive prisoners are subjected to discriminatory prevention measures. They are segregated from other prisoners and have separate access to common areas (bathroom, kitchen, cells). They are not allowed to participate in activities. Their consent is disregarded when implementing these measures.¹

Between June 2011 and February 2012, an NGO ran an awareness campaign on risk prevention for prisoners in collaboration with the National AIDS Programme (NAP), the FSIs, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and others. The campaign focused on prevention and early diagnosis of HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, as well as diagnosis and treatment for other sexually transmitted diseases. The initiative also included a two-day training course for 35 FSI staff (prison governors, medical directors, supervisors).¹

Roumieh Prison is the only facility with a specific unit for people with psychiatric disorders, known as the “blue building”. This unit was set up in 2002 on the initiative of the family of a prisoner who suffered from mental disorders.¹ The blue building is considered more modern than the prison’s other premises. Hygiene conditions are better, and doors are kept open. Prisoners with HIV/AIDS are also housed there.
A doctor visits the prisoners in this building once every two months. Every year, a judge is required to send a psychiatrist to assess the prisoners’ health and “estimate their recovery”. The building was considered to be inadequately equipped and unsuitable for the care of mentally ill prisoners.² In 2016, it was renovated thanks to donations from an Italian cooperative and UNODC. The unit does not have a medical centre, and psychiatric care is not available.

Prisoners who have committed offences due to mental disorders, incarcerated in this unit, are sentenced to life imprisonment: they can never be released, on the grounds that they represent a danger to society because these disorders cannot be healed. Prisoners with mental health problems not acknowledged by a judge are not subject to specific placement.

In 2016, Dany Khalaf, a psychiatrist at the Association Justice and Mercy (Association Justice et Miséricorde, AJEM), summed up the situation: “I am the only psychiatrist here in Roumieh where 300 out of 3,500 prisoners suffer from mental disorders. Every week, I visit a different prison unit. Roumieh is nowhere near the worst case. In other prisons in the country, there is no specialised psychiatric department […] At the moment, a judge is supposed to appoint a psychiatrist who should visit the prisoners annually to assess whether ‘they are cured yet’. But mental illnesses cannot be cured. [They can be stabilised] with medication. Unfortunately, some judges refuse to appoint a specialist and have backward views on mental illness.”

Judges are required to ask individuals arrested for drug use to choose between treatment and incarceration (Act 673 of 1998). Those who choose treatment are monitored by a Drug Addiction Committee (DAC) under the Ministry of Justice.¹