“Don’t I have the right to lead a normal life?” wondered 40-year-old Fatima from her prison cell in the Jadida Prison for Women in Tripoli.  “Had I thought I would return to prison, I would not have gotten re-married and had children,” she said.

Fatima had been imprisoned for murdering her former husband – also her cousin – who was physically and mentally abusive. She was released in 2011 however, when Gaddafi granted amnesty to all prisoners. She was released even before she was sentenced. She returned to her life and got re-married. 

“Don’t I have the right to lead a normal life?” wondered 40-year-old Fatima from her prison cell in the Jadida Prison for Women in Tripoli.  “Had I thought I would return to prison, I would not have gotten re-married and had children,” she said.

Fatima had been imprisoned for murdering her former husband – also her cousin – who was physically and mentally abusive. She was released in 2011 however, when Gaddafi granted amnesty to all prisoners. She was released even before she was sentenced. She returned to her life and got re-married. 

However, her cousins-in-laws managed to lure her out of her father’s house and contacted the police, who re-arrested Fatima for the murder of her former husband. She was pregnant. While waiting for the court’s verdict, due any day now, she gave birth to her baby girl, Hala, in prison where she is bringing her up.

Single mothers

What sets Fatima apart from the other inmates is that she is the only mother of a “legitimate baby.” According to the prison’s administration, there are five prisoner mothers with five daughters. The eldest is Hala, Fatima’s daughter and the youngest is Maram, who is only one month old – her 21-year-old mother gave birth to her out of wedlock. 

One of those single mothers is an Ethiopian housemaid in her twenties. She was raped in the family she was working for and is now on trial for “having sexual intercourse” and giving birth to an illegitimate child.

So’ad, Maram’s mother, who is facing the same charges, is waiting for one of Tripoli’s armed brigades (Aghniwa Brigade) to release the father of her daughter, as he promised to marry her so that she’ll be acquitted of the “intercourse” charge.   

Future of the babies

Colonel N, Director of the Prison who spoke on condition of anonymity, says that according to the prison law in Libya, prisoners can keep their children for two years. Afterwards, the children are transitioned to orphanages. N says children from orphanages are eventually stigmatized: “Unfortunately, the prison has no nursery to receive the prisoners’ children.”

Some children, says Colonel N, are lucky that the prisoners’ families take them in after the end of the nursing period to look after them. In other cases, the prisoner, willingly, gives her child to another family to look after them. Thus, the mother cuts the ties with her child according to a cession contract between her and the family who adopts the child. “In both cases, the imprisoned mother is no longer able to see her child.”

All of these scenarios terrify Fatima who, says Colonel N, might be convicted and sentenced to 15 years imprisonment. Fatima refused to answer the question about her plans for the future of her baby –  bursting into tears when the question was repeated.

Period of nursing

The prisoners’ biggest problem is the long legal proceedings. Some prisoners spend years in prison waiting to be sentenced. Fatima, for instance, has been waiting for a year and a half for the court’s ruling.

During the nursing period, the health care department follows up on the children’s health and the prison’s administration provides the children’s needs, medicines and toys, though through “personal connections,” says the Colonel N.

Upon visiting the prison’s clinic, along with Colonel N, it was empty except for one officer who justified the absence of nurses by saying that “they got out minutes ago.” The majority of the clinic’s doctors are civil servants who receive no pay and thus got fed up with providing their services for free. The Office of Social Specialists was closed and the prison’s director claimed: “They are not disciplined.”

Uncertain future

The prison currently hosts 52 prisoners, some of them are still on trial and have not yet been sentenced for cases which include prostitution, drug abuse and dealing and “having sexual intercourse” in which only women are imprisoned as men often manage to escape and find protection in their societies. Five prisoners are mothers.

Colonel N is frustrated that these women are neglected and that there are no programs to guarantee them and their children a decent life after serving their terms. She laments the fact that the state has not reactivated the Foundation of “Women Protection Home” which operated under Gaddafi’s regime. It acted as a transition place, which hosted these prisoners after serving their terms. It provided them with job opportunities and legal advocacy.

“Most of them resort to prostitution as society and their families ostracize them and they are left with no jobs to provide for themselves. Some prisoners actually come from good families. However, unfortunately, they are imprisoned for committing adultery,” she said.

“Imprisonment is not a cure, On the contrary, in prison, they get introduced to professional prostitutes who teach them their ways. In most of the cases, they use drugs and their lives are totally shattered,” says Colonel N.

Colonel Ahmed Bu Gra’, the spokesperson of the Judicial Police Apparatus, says that the issue is not limited to women. “Previously, there were active systems which protected prisoners, whether men and women, and prevented them from sliding back to the wrong path after serving their terms.” 

One of these systems was implemented by the Judicial Police Apparatus and under the supervision of the Ministry of Vocational Training. According to this system, long-term prisoners were trained in a vocation. At the end of the training program, they were awarded certificates endorsed by the Ministry of Vocational Training rather than the Prisons Administration and the ministry provided prisoners with job opportunities when they were released.

Under the current circumstances and the political crisis, which has impacted all aspects of life, it is natural, says Abu Gra’, to find that prisoners, men and women, are returning to prison for the same old crimes.