During its meeting on Sunday, the Lower House Freedom and Human Rights Committee, headed by MP Abdullah Abu Zeid, was briefed on role of the Anti-Narcotics Department (AND ) at Public Security Directorate (PSD) in countering drug abuse and trafficking cases and the mechanism followed by Jordan’s Department of Correction and Rehabilitation Centers (DCRCs) in dealing with sick inmates and hunger strikes.
Abu Zeid said the House panel supports all Jordanian security apparatuses to ensure citizens’ security and hailed AND’s efforts, which always seeks to combat this phenomenon and curb its spread at the Kingdom’s level.
Abu Zeid also stressed the need to pay “greater” attention to the quality of services provided to prison inmates, especially in the healthcare field.
Meanwhile, the committee’s members lauded security departments’ efforts to combat all forms of crime, especially drug trading and promotion.
The lawmakers also called on intensifying efforts to combat this phenomenon by expanding awareness activities in all Jordanian universities.
For his part, AND Director, Col. Hassan Qudah, said the latest statistics show that about 11,718 drug cases were seized, including 3,290 trafficking attempts.
The AND’s new mechanism to deal with drug trafficking cases seeks to reduce abuse incidents, he noted, referring to joint cooperation made by all security and military agencies to combat this phenomenon.
On the youth-oriented campaigns, he said 2,224 awareness activities have been carried out this year in this regard, mostly at universities and educational institutions.
For his part, DCRCs Director, Brigadier Gen. Ashraf Omari, said prisons have a capacity to house 13,282 inmates, distributed among 17 rehabilitation centres, adding that inmate number so far exceeded 20,000.
Source: Jordan News Agency