Shafaq News- Al-Sulaymaniyah

The Women's and Juveniles' Reformatory in Al-Sulaymaniyah is holding 72 women serving court sentences for a range of offenses, 14 of them sentenced to death and awaiting execution, according to the facility's director on Wednesday.

Fuad Jaza told Shafaq News that the 72 women currently held were convicted in cases that include murder, theft, drug offenses, and forgery, while the number of children held at the facility is not fixed and changes as cases enter and leave.

According to Jaza, each inmate is registered on a dedicated form on arrival and undergoes a medical examination before being assigned to a section according to their age group, and the administration provides health and social care alongside educational and rehabilitation programs, he explained. Some inmates completed secondary education while serving their sentences, and others continued university studies from inside the facility.

The General Director of the correctional facilities, Ihsan Abdulrahman, told Shafaq News that the facilities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq currently house 6,200 inmates across six prisons, including 1,985 people convicted on drug-related charges and 539 sentenced to death.

Iraq’s Justice Network for Prisoners (JNP) reported earlier that Iraq’s detention centers and prisons are grappling with severe issues, many of which render them “unfit for human life.”27% of prisons had not been inspected by United Nations delegations, and there are no accommodations for people with disabilities.