After decades, a new military prison base was inaugurated. The base, Neve Tzedek, is located in the Beit Lid camp named after the late Mordechai Gur, and will replace the 394 and 396 detention bases (Prison 4 and Prison 6).
The base structure is based on 11 companies. Five incarceration companies for men, three closed companies, a tent company for disciplinary offenses, the Isolation and Separation Division, and a separate women's company.
The IDF says that "each company has a different character and it contains prisoners with different degrees of offense, respectively. In each company there are 20 cells with seven inmates in the cell and a total of 140 inmates in each company. In the Tent Company there are 12 tents for 240 inmates. The incarceration space is 5.4 meters per prisoner, including a shower and toilet."
The sorting and placement of the inmates was determined by the commander of a sorting company about 24 hours after the soldiers are admitted to the detention base, taking into account various criteria.
The detention base can accommodate about 940 inmates, compared to the 770 inmates who can currently be accommodated in the two detention bases together.
The base includes about 300 staff, including inmate commanders, platoon commanders, and company commanders. In the new prison, over 700 cameras were installed in the public areas.
The Chief Military Police Officer explains that the concept of operation of the unified prison is mainly based on a process of education and rehabilitation in order to return the soldiers to proper service in the IDF.
In 2020, 56% of the inmates in the IDF were imprisoned for the first time, 22% returned for the second time, 11% for the third time, and an additional 11% returned to prison to serve a fourth sentence.