Prison Wards

 Mahabad prison has 6 wards. Ward 1 is located on the level floor and is assigned to prisoners charged with drug-related felonies. This ward has 4 rooms and one hall, with separate showers, restrooms and a court yard. Most of the times there are 120 to 140 prisoners held in this ward.
Wards 2, 3, 4, 5, the mosque and the prison store are located on the second floor. Wards 2 and 3 each have 4 rooms and a hall. Ward 4 is allocated to the youth and is actually a large hall where nearly 90 people are imprisoned. Ward 5 is allocated to ill prisoners and there are 30 individuals held there.

Showers

 The entrance ward is located on the level floor and has two rooms, showers and a small courtyard. Nearly 350 individuals are held in wards 2, 3, 4, and 5. This prison has 6 showers lacking enough water, and the water provided is very cold and/or very hot. Prisoners are forced to ask the guards and plead for them to open the water.

Hygiene

 Mahabad prison officials do nothing in regards of hygiene. The prisoners themselves have chosen a number of prisoners amongst themselves as “municipality workers” to follow-up on clean-up efforts. All the prisoners provide some money to these prisoners doing these chores.

Medical Care

 An individual by the name of Dr. Khalendi visits ill prisoners on a daily basis. He only provides ordinary medicine.
Prisoners suffering from specific illnesses that must be transferred outside of the facility are only taken if permission is provided by prison officials. If this permission is given the medical care is provided by an individuals named Dr. Mashiri at the prisoners’ own expense.
Normally ill prisoners requesting care outside of prison have to wait a few months to receive permission from the judiciary.
At times the number of prisoners are so high that in addition to many sleeping on the ground and hallways, the mosque is also used for prisoners to sleep in. For example, a room with 18 beds has more than 30 inmates.

Food

Each prisoner receives 4 pieces of bread each day along with a very limited amount of cheese and butter. Lunch and dinner are usually served in very poor quality.

Prison Guards Harassing Prisoners

 Misbehavior, bad conduct and invalid inspections in the cold and during hot days has always been one of the measures resorted to by the prison guards. For hours they leave the prisoners in the courtyard until their inspections are finished.
There are also individuals who are provoked by the prison officials to harass the political prisoners.

Leave for Prisoners

 The judge monitoring this prison usually postpones cases of political prisoners for bogus reasons. If their cases are actually raised he has no authority to review these cases without permission from the intelligence apparatus.

Drugs in Prison

Like all other prisons in Iran drugs can be easily found in Mahabad Central Prison and easily accessible by the prisoners. Political prisoners go to great lengths to prevent the distribution of drugs inside the prison. However, prison officials are indifferent to the distribution of drugs inside the prison. In this regard officials have warned political prisoners time and again to not interfere in this issue. (Campaign in

Defense of Political & Civil Prisoners – March 6, 2016)