Orit Adato

Brigadier General (ret.) Orit Adato (; born 1955, birth name: Orit Eliaz) is a former Israeli military commander and Israel Prison Service Commissioner. She was drafted into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in 1973. Following her mandatory service, she left the army and reenlisted in 1978. Her 24-year military career included both training and command positions. In her She served as commander of the Women's Corps from 1997 to 1999, until her retirement from the IDF. In 2000 she was appointed Commissioner of the Israel Prison Service, being the first woman to hold that post. She is the founder and managing director of Adato Consulting Ltd., and is an international consultant on prison management, prison security, prison privatization, and dealing with incarcerated terrorists and gang members.

Early life and education Orit Eliaz was born in Kiryat Tiv'on, Israel, the youngest of three children and only daughter of Moshe Eliaz and Rachel Pardo. She became the Women's Corps officer of the Nahal Brigade in 1990, Adato was instrumental in effecting changes in policies and attitudes toward women in the military, In 1998, Adato was quoted as saying, "I see myself as heading an organization whose goal is its own demise". The Women's Corps was dissolved on August 1, 2001, and replaced by Chen , which eventually was subsumed into the General Security Service. In 1999 she told the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women that while the actual number of complaints were down from 1997 to 1998, the number of incidents of physical or verbal sexual harassment that were reported to the military police rose 43 percent in 1998 over 1997, and 23 indictments were issued, compared to 16 the previous year.

In 1999 Adato served as a member of the Israeli delegation to the United Nations Committee on Women's Rights; she addressed the conference on "The role of women in the Israeli Defense Forces as a mechanism for improving the status of women".

Prison Service Commissioner Adato retired from the IDF with the rank of brigadier general. She was the first woman to achieve a three-star rank in the Israeli military. Her request to be assigned as an IDF military attache internationally was denied, but Shlomo Ben-Ami, Minister of Public Security, offered her the position of Commissioner of the Israel Prison Service, She supervised a staff of 4,500 and managed a total inmate population of 12,000, as well as 2,000 prisoners in community service. During Adato's tenure, the Ofek Prison was opened to accommodate juvenile inmates. However, no improvements were made in the conditions of confinement or in the overcrowding in the prison system, in part due to the influx of prisoners during the Second Intifada.

Adato brought more women into senior positions in the Prison Service. She installed female officers as commanders of seven of Israel's 21 prisons, and promoted one female officer to the rank of brigadier general, the first woman to attain that rank from within the service. She frequently consults with African and Latin American nations on these issues. She also volunteers in organizations fostering Israel-U.S. relations, including Partnership 2000 and the Israel Forum, and prisoner release.

Memberships Adato is the first international vice-president of the International Corrections and Prisons Association, and in 2011 was awarded an honorary life membership. She is also a board member of the Council for Peace and Security; a steering committee member of the Deborah Forum, which works for "the advancement of women in foreign policy and national security"; and a member of the America–Israel Friendship League.

Personal life Adato married Joseph Paz, a mathematics instructor, in 1976. They had one daughter, and divorced in 1980. In 1984 she remarried to Yehoshua Adato, a restaurant manager and electronic engineer. With her second husband, she has one son and one daughter.