Moroccan Prisons Use Special Method to Reintegrate Extremist Convicts

Rabat – Morocco’s General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR) has outlined a new approach the country’s prisons will use to rehabilitate and reintegrate convicts arrested on extremism and terrorism charges.

The special approach includes educational activities to teach prisoners basic academics and professional training, as well as extracurricular artistic and athletic activities.

The prisons will also offer a peer education program serving to facilitate the process of social reintegration, with support from the United Nations, Japan’s Government, and the Mohammedia League of Scholars.

So far, close to 48,000 convicts have benefitted from the program, Moulay Idriss Agelmam, Director of the Directorate of Social and Cultural Work For Prisoners, said.

Inspired by Morocco’s constitution and legislation, as well as international requirements and agreements, the approach seeks to help prisons fulfill their social function better, Agelmam added.

Adding to this approach, Agelmam made mention of the Moussalaha (Reconciliation) program in Moroccan prisons, which seeks to offer extremists mental and social help to rehabilitate them and reintegrate them in society.

The program is based on three main pillars — reconciliation with the self, with religious text, and with society.

Since its launch 10 years ago, 156 detainees benefited from the program and have been released, while fifteen others benefited from reduced sentences.

Human resources being another important part of the process, Agelmam stressed that the DGAPR has worked on training its staff, adding that 96% of employees received training on how to combat extremism inside prisons.

The training was conducted by 40 experts who were taught at the Global Center on Cooperative Security, he added.

Morocco has been working on improving the national prison system. Recently, a 4 year program was put in place to improve detention conditions to a more humane standard.

The new measures include less crowding, reintegration programs, more sanitary conditions, and providing better development for the prison employees.