World Prisons
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Jordan

Swaqa prison

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Verified 30 Jun 2026
Fresh · 2d ago

Data is aggregated from public sources and may be incomplete or out of date. Always verify with primary sources before acting on any figure. See data sources.

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How to send mail, money, and visit Swaqa prison

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Capacity

Current population

Occupancy

Year opened

1988

Operational

Facility profile

Operator

Population held

Mixed/unknown

Opened

1988

Region

Security level

Death-row facility

No

Conditions

ida prison, where I sent faxes to > the governor every day. Because of that, they transferred me to Swaqa prison. I > have presented 25 petitions for release with a guarantee, with my wife, mother, > father, and brothers acting as guarantors. If you don’t have \[assets\] > yourself, you have to find someone with land and pay him a fee to present it as > a bond, and then pay the government fees. We don’t have enough money for > that. My family wanted to present a piece of land as my guarantee, worth 10,000 > dinars \[about US$14,000\], and paid the government fees of around 0.8 percent, > but I am still here. I have written many petitions for clemency. Wa’il Ahmad, age 23, had already spent 70 days in administrative detention when he spoke with Human Rights Watch at Swaqa prison. His experience encapsulates many of the abuses inflicted on those subjected to Jordan’s administrative detention policies. The Crime Prevention Law of 1954 allows governors to start procedures against persons who are “about to commit a crime or assist in its commission,” those who “habitually” steal, shelter thieves, or fence stolen goods, and anyone who, if remaining at liberty, would constitute a “danger to the people.” Court verdicts and interviews Human Rights Watch conducted indicated that governors resort most frequently to this last provision. 23, had already spent 70 days in administrative detention when he spoke with Human Rights Watch at Swaqa prison. His experience encapsulates many of [...] (per Human Rights Watch)

Visiting

No visiting information available.

Mailing

No mailing information available.

Practical info

Contact the operator's website for inmate-specific procedures.

Known issues

No major issues documented in our database.

Contact & address

No public contact details available.

Conditions Risk Score

Derived signal — not a judgement. How it's calculated

0/100
Low concern0/100
Overcrowding
0/30
Oversight reports
0/30
Structural flags
0/15
Death signals
0/15
Conditions text
0/10

Reports

  • HRW1 Jan 2009

    ida prison, where I sent faxes to > the governor every day. Because of that, they transferred me to Swaqa prison. I > have presented 25 petitions for release with a guarantee, with my wife, mother, > father, and brothers acting as guarantors. If you don’t have \[assets\] > yourself, you have to find someone with land and pay him a fee to present it as > a bond, and then pay the government fees. We don’t have enough money for > that. My family wanted to present a piece of land as my guarantee, worth 10,000 > dinars \[about US$14,000\], and paid the government fees of around 0.8 percent, > but I am still here. I have written many petitions for clemency. Wa’il Ahmad, age 23, had already spent 70 days in administrative detention when he spoke with Human Rights Watch at Swaqa prison. His experience encapsulates many of the abuses inflicted on those subjected to Jordan’s administrative detention policies. The Crime Prevention Law of 1954 allows governors to start procedures against persons who are “about to commit a crime or assist in its commission,” those who “habitually” steal, shelter thieves, or fence stolen goods, and anyone who, if remaining at liberty, would constitute a “danger to the people.” Court verdicts and interviews Human Rights Watch conducted indicated that governors resort most frequently to this last provision. 23, had already spent 70 days in administrative detention when he spoke with Human Rights Watch at Swaqa prison. His experience encapsulates many of [...] (per Human Rights Watch)

    source

Data completeness

26%

How many of our profile fields are populated. We surface this so families and researchers know the limits.

Sources