In 2006, The National Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) investigated prison conditions in all of Jordan's ten correctional facilities.
It found conditions in Al Jafr to be abysmal in terms of the level of care and service provided to inmates.
On 17 December 2006, the kingdom's monarch, King Abdullah II, during a visit to the NCHR, ordered the prison closed and recommended that authorities rehabilitate the facility as a vocational training centre.
The closure of Al Jafr is the most prominent achievement of Jordan's $34 million penal reform programme now underway.
The plan targets an overhaul of existing prison infrastructure, the construction of new facilities to ease over-crowding and the institutionalization of correctional and rehabilitation programmes for inmates.