Two women inmates who have been transferred to a new Makkah correctional facility have requested tight security after receiving death threats from their families. The women said they had received “serious” death threats when they were at their previous home, the Makkah correctional facility which was recently saw riots by inmates protesting poor treatment. The women were speaking Saturday on their arrival at the new facility. The new correctional facility lacks adequate security measures and it is located in a run-down neighborhood, inhabited mostly by single men. This would make it easier for their families to gain entry, the two women said. The guards have nothing they can use to defend the women inmates except for a police number to call in an emergency. “It might be too late if our families broke into the facility looking for us,” they said. According to Abdullah Al-Yusuf, Undersecretary at the Ministry of Social Affairs, at least 100 women inmates, who have completed their time at correctional facilities in the Kingdom, were refused to be taken back by their families. The women inmates of correctional facilities have always been stigmatized as a disgrace to their families. The two women said they will hold the Ministry of Social Affairs responsible for their safety because the ministry has transferred them to this new facility. An official at the Ministry of Social Affairs, however, said that all correctional facilities across the Kingdom enjoy “tight” security measures for the safety and protection of inmates, in coordination with the government's security authorities.
