Grand Ayatollah Fazel Meets Officials in Charge of (Iran's)Jails

Today (December/29/2004), officials in charge of (Iran's) jails met Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani. Yasaghi, head of Iran's jails thanked His Eminence, Grand Ayatollah Fazel Lankarani and said, "The country's jails are now turned into training and education centers where at present more than five thousand individuals are busy memorizing the Holy Quran. We have also taken some effective actions for the convenience of prisoners in jails." At the end he asked His Eminence to give his guidelines to the audience.

His Eminence thanked the audience for coming to meet him. Thereupon he said:
As our revolution's main feature is being a spiritual revolution, we must try to decrease imprisonment (duration) as far as possible and let prisoners be free if their freedom is not against social security so that by doing this the prisoners may take care of their families. Although the enemies of Islam are claiming to be working for human rights and supporting democracy they are doing nothing for the convenience and security of the global community. As we see in Afghanistan they are doing nothing to prevent poppy cultivation. Likewise, they are doing what they want in Iraq.  They are massacring people and these same people are claiming that human rights are being violated in Iran. Anyhow, we are faced with unrealistic propagations and in some cases we are but to keep silent.   However, to prevent from such accusations we have to do our level best so as not to give an excuse in their hands to be used against us. Therefore, we ought to try to prevent things from happening that might be misused by the enemies of Islam. Violence and mal-treatment should not take place in jails of the Islamic Republic and we must try to educate prisoners properly so that when they come out of jails, they are healthy individuals in the society. We must act in such manner that Islam's objectives are fully materialized and in order for the reputation and name of Islam to be protected, we must observe appearance so that we are less accused. We must help prisoners become acquainted with the principles of Islam and know that serving the Islamic society by way of mending criminals is a kind of worship.