Notes of Evin Prison outside Tehran

• After the Iranian Presidential elections of 12 June 2009, and subsequent widespread political arrests, the visitation pattern of political prisoners’ families changed drastically from previous years. The number of political prisoners increased and therefore the number of families who were in search of their arrested loved ones also increased. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has conducted several interviews with the families of political prisoners regarding the details of their visits to Evin prison. (for a summary of their descriptions of Evin Prison, see "Evin Prison: Visiting political prisoners," 4 March 2010)
  

Offside Director Remains Imprisoned

• Internationally acclaimed Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi, slated to serve as a jury member at the [63rd Cannes Film Festival] festival, couldn't attend because he was being held in Tehran’s Evin prison....

• In March 2010, plainclothes security officials raided Panahi’s Tehran home and arrested him along with his wife, daughter and 15 house guests. Though Iranian authorities shortly released the others, they held on to Panahi, accusing him of “making a film against the regime following the post-election events," according to the French daily Le Figaro.
• Despite this, the prosecutor's office in Tehran argues that Panahi’s imprisonment has no political motive.
• "The arrest of Jafar Panahi is not because he is an artist or for political reason[s]," prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told the Iranian Students News Agency....
• Authorities had previously arrested Panahi, a supporter of the protest movement that emerged after last year's disputed presidential elections held in June, for participating in a memorial service for Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman killed in July 2009 allegedly at the hands of a pro-government militiaman. ("Iran: Cannes 2010: Imprisoned filmmaker Jafar Panahi is honored at film festival," Babylon & Beyond, May 13, 2010)

The director's arrest and imprisonment is so counterproductive for the current Iranian regime, as Panahi's "Offside" (2006) is a film which suggest the richness and vitality of modern Iranian culture.
(see "Jafar Panahi on Offside," Payvand's Iran News 7 March 2007)

Overcrowding at Evin Prison is just the least of the problems

A description of incarceration there on a sweep for protestors (actually the witness here was taken into custody just for supposedly filming protestors):

• They were headed to the notorious Evin Prison, but M said he was relieved to get there. He knew that's where his family would look for him first. But he was horrified to learn that more than 500 prisoners would be crammed into a cell of about 500 square feet.
• Older than most of the prisoners, M was designated the cellblock leader, in charge of scheduling four-hour sleeping shifts for the inmates, who had to stand during the rest of the time, share a single toilet or make quick calls to their family on a single phone....
• Prisoners were frequently singled out and pulled away for interrogation. They came back hours later with bruises or with blood in their urine, he said. Some would be pulled out at 8 a.m. and returned 14 hours later, limping and exhausted.
• Guards told him that about 4,500 people were swept up June 20, with unaccounted numbers jailed in many other places. At one point, he met a family whose members were all jailed. A man, who was with his two sons, said his wife and daughter were in the women's section of the prison.
• Finally, M was taken for interrogation. He was blindfolded, never getting a chance to see his questioners. But judging from their voices, they were young men. ("Iran book publisher recalls weeklong ordeal in prison," by Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times, July 2, 2009)
  

Like I said: you can punish some of the people, some of the time...

"Tehran's notorious Evin prison is full, now they use football stadiums." No idea if this Twitter post (Jim Sciutto, ABC, 30 June) is true, or if the following is as well: "Rooftop Allahu Akbars still on, despite Basij raids - 1 case where all residents of a 5-floor apt building were bused to Evin but we have seen this in crack-downs around the world before" (Lara Setrakian, ABC, 3 July 2009). But we have seen this in crack-downs around the world before, and if the bused-in Basiji are staying in hostels in East Tehran, surely these snippets suggest they are running out of prison space in North Tehran.