Regional workshop on prison rehabilitation programmes begins

A regional workshop on prison rehabilitation programmes, organised by the Ministry of Interior in collaboration with the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), began yesterday in Doha with the participation of 12 countries.The workshop is part of the implementation of the Doha Declaration issued by the 13th UN Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (UNCCPCJ) and through the financial support provided by Qatar to the programme, with the aim of assisting countries to achieve a positive and sustainable impact of crime prevention and criminal justice.The workshop focuses on a number of topics such as prison rehabilitation from an international perspective and prison rehabilitation programmes in the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) from a regional perspective in addition to reviewing the national efforts submitted by the participants, success stories and challenges, presentations about the classification of prisoners, and carrying out a field visit to the care section and rehabilitating the inmates in the penal and correctional institutions in the country.Brigadier Mohamed Saud al-Otaibi, director, Penal and Correctional Institutions Department, pointed to the importance of the Doha Declaration issued by the 13th UNCCPCJ in 2015, which resulted in the launching of the global programme for the implementation of the declaration, funded by Qatar and its focus on rehabilitation of inmates and their reintegration into society.He stressed that the rehabilitation of prisoners must be based on studies and plans, according to a number of criteria that must be taken into account, in particular (age, educational qualification, health status, type of offence, duration of punishment) taking into account the need for the labour market for a number of specialities.Marco Chira, co-ordinator, Doha Declaration Global Programme, stressed that rehabilitation programmes for the reintegration of prisoners after serving their sentences should be reviewed without prejudice to the law or legislation provided for.“With the help of Qatar, it has been possible to create an educational programme for prisoners, to provide technical and technical support to more than 11 countries, in addition to providing many training workshops for its correctional institutions,” said Chira.Alejandro Matta, programme management officer at UNODC, noted that international law states that prisoners must be given the opportunity to acquire knowledge and skills that can help them reintegrate into society after their release in order not to return to crime.“International law on civil and political rights stipulates that the prison system shall take into account the treatment of prisoners, the main objective of which is their rehabilitation and social rehabilitation,” said Matta.He stressed that the roadmap for the development of prison rehabilitation programmes includes four main phases: an assessment of prison rehabilitation activities, planning of new initiatives, programmes and activities to bridge the gaps revealed by the assessment, detailed development of new initiatives, and monitoring and evaluation of prison rehabilitation programmes.Captain Bakheet Abdullah Albaridi, head of Care and Rehabilitation Department of Penal and Correctional Institutions (Qatar), said that the Ministry of Interior aims to reform and rehabilitate inmates using all educational, medical, vocational training, social service, sports, cultural and recreational activities. (QNA)