Statement of Ministry of Justice On the occasion of the 10th session of university program in prisons On “strategic planning development: What position for penitentiary institutions”
Wednesday, March 23, 2022
Local prison in Salé 2
I am honored to inaugurate with you the 10th working session for the program “university at prisons” which is held under the topic “strategic planning for development: What position for penitentiary institutions”, an important topic for the Moroccan Kingdom which tackles various levels of legislative, institutional and societal issues.
Our country has made many strides and has achieved many gains and accumulated experiences, thanks to the contribution of all (government sectors, economic and social activists, civil society, strong and vital media) in full harmony with His Majesty King Mohammed VI’s orientations, who has called on many occasions to embrace a deep comprehensive strategy for this sector, especially in reference to His Majesty’s speech on the occasion of the inauguration of the judicial year in 2003, as His Majesty said “Our broad consideration for social scope in the justice field cannot be accomplished without what we provide of human dignity to citizens prisoners… we have deeply been affected by what has occurred inside some prisons of painful accidents.. and in conjunction with the advanced reform which has included prisons’ regulations and the ambitious action work done by Mohammed VI Institution for the Re-integration of Prisoners, we have issued our directives in order to accelerate the construction of penitentiary compounds, modern, civil and agricultural which take care of material and moral conditions of prisoners”, end of quotes of the royal speech.
We are fully aware of the big achievements in the process of safeguarding economic and social rights of prisoners and of humanizing detention conditions, paving the way for appropriate conditions for re-integration, increasing the ratio for training and rehabilitation and also modernizing penitentiary administration and training its human resources; all this is seen as big and honoring effort, yet at the same time, we know better that needs are still bigger and the process is long, hard and becomes more and more complicated and harder with the increase of the number of prisoners over the last few years; the fact which requires from all interested sides to necessarily multiply efforts and reinforce energies to push forwards open major projects inside prisons and improve infrastructures and rehabilitate and reintegrate detainees and also modernize the administration and its human resources… The Ministry of Justice is doing its best to take care about citizens’ conditions including prisoners; and the judiciary record document is considered as one of the main obstacles in front of social re-integration, particularly as a hurdle in front of integrating the job market and therefore contributes to restrict job opportunity for released prisoners.. The judiciary record document is considered as a real obstacle in front of all punishment systems over the world.. The treatment of this problematic requires from the Ministry of Justice to include some amendments in the penal code procedure, which aim at achieving the re-integration process for released prisoners such as granting prisoners, who have benefited from vocational training program or have got academic certificates inside prisons, granting them judiciary records cleared from any criminal records or antecedents to encourage them of integrating in a better manner the society.
In the same context, we are reviewing the procedure of reconsideration to incite prisoners to integrate reforming programs … and we are also discussing other inciting legal arrangements such as amnesty, restricted release on bail; since we could rely on the criteria of learning and training as incentives to benefit from those two-mentioned tools.
The focus should also be on psychological and mental aspects of prisoners, to boost their desire for integrating the society after their release and as a consequence they could contribute to development policy of the Moroccan Kingdom.. Short term sentences constitute a real obstacle in front of the prisoners’ re-integration programs and this requires thinking about alternative sentences like working for general public interest, electronic control etc.. Short term sentences have negative impact on the rehabilitation program for prisoners.
In conclusion, let me renew my thanks to dear friend Mr. the General Delegate for penitentiary and re-integration administration, not only for his invitation but also for the big efforts he is making to really change for the better this sector.
