A workshop on prison reforms in the Makkah province has come up with 36 recommendations for the comprehensive development of inmates in terms of skills and the prison environment.
Major recommendations include organizing accredited training programs to enable inmates to regain their self-esteem besides qualifying them to successfully compete in the job market.
“Steps will be taken to implement the recommendations in the best possible manner,” Undersecretary at the Makkah Governorate Abdul Aziz Al-Khodairy said in a statement on Monday.
The workshop, in which 40 government departments, academics and businessmen participated, was organized early this month on the orders of Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Al-Khodairy said.
One recommendation was that jails should have internal training centers in education, psychology, sociology and religious topics and should be equipped with modern multimedia equipment.
Another notable recommendation was to open offices in jails to coordinate with the Ministry of Labor to arrange for prisoners’ employment when their sentence comes to an end.
The workshop also recommended trainees and trainers should be provided with special incentives to make the program successful. The trainers should be qualified with special skills to interact with inmates, the workshop said.
The governorate has set up a coordination committee to implement the recommendations under the chairmanship of Director General of Public Rights at the Makkah Governorate Abdullah Al-Qarash.
The recommendations stressed the need to enlist the cooperation of private establishments, universities and training centers to develop the skills of prison staff for the best interaction with inmates.
Another recommendation was to recruit a greater number of sociologists and psychologists as prison staff.
The workshop also recommended factors such as market demand, future prospects, age and aptitude of inmates should be considered when training courses are organized.
The workshop urged private and government agencies to organize orientation programs to convince the society of the need to support ex-prisoners to reintegrate into society.
It also stressed the need to support and encourage organizations working for the welfare of prisoners and their families such as Tarahum, a Saudi committee that looks after the affairs of prisoners, ex-convicts and their families.
Another recommendation is to move long-term convicts to major prisons so that they have a greater opportunity to join wide ranging training programs that branch prisons may not have.
The workshop’s recommendations also included an appeal to authorities to provide a free legal service to convicts who cannot afford to appoint lawyers to take up their cases.
The workshop also recommended the improvement of medical facilities in prisons and establishing a greater number of psychological, social and religious counseling centers.
The recommendations also stressed the need to learn from the experience of more advanced countries with regard to prison management and improving prison environments, arrange university level distance education, allocation of part of endowment income for welfare projects of prisoners and their families, starting investment projects to provide job training, allocation of houses to families of poor prisoners, financial aid to prisoners in debt and construction of new guest houses for ex-women convicts rejected by their relatives and a fund to subsidize the marriage expenses of ex-women convicts.