Gov’t prioritizes ensuring repeat offending is reduced, in rehabilitation efforts: pres.

One of the incumbent administration’s core policies is to ensure repeat offence is reduced, in the efforts to rehabilitate and reintegrate inmates, says President Ibrahim Mohamed Solih.

The president said this while speaking at the ceremony to commemorate the 51st anniversary of the Maldives Correctional Services (MCS).

Taking the podium at the ceremony, President Solih noted that it is one of his administration’s core policies to rehabilitate and reintegrate inmates, while ensuring repeated criminal acts is reduced.

Shedding light on the significance of rehabilitation, President Solih stated that the first ever drug rehabilitation program conducted in a Maldives prison was successfully completed by 32 inmates on September 2, adding that prison reform has a larger purpose of restoring inmates to the society.

He went on to reveal that a program called ‘Fahi Furusathu’ was launched in 2020 for inmates released on parole for reintegration into society.

Going on to speak around prison reform policies, the president stated that recommendations made in prison audits conducted as part of the administration's first 100-day pledges, are being incorporated into physical efforts to improve the prison system.

Highlighting that the administration has begun adapting the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners or ‘the Mandela Rules’, President Solih noted that a program to let prison officers get familiarized with these standards, is currently underway.

Further, President Solih highlighted that the Prisons and Parole Act is currently being amended to improve the parole process in order to reintegrate inmates back into society, going on to shed light on the recently published study “Prison Radicalization in the Maldives” conducted by the Transparency Maldives.

The president also stressed that the issue of inmates convicted on drug-related charges, being influenced by religious extremism in prisons, also exist and needs to be addressed.

With this, the president revealed that a special 100-person capacity unit is being built in Maafushi Prison where special reintegration programs for extremists are scheduled to be carried out.

Tuesday’s ceremony saw President Solih presenting commemorative plaques to corrections employees who have provided their services for 25 consecutive years.