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United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime expert in town to train Prison officials
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20 December 2007
Male, Maldives
In what could seen as a first step towards much delayed rehabilitation,
prison trainers are in for an extensive workshop starting from Monday with UNODC expertise midst rehabilitation for prisoners set to begin early next year.
Based on 4 days of training starting on December 24, prison trainers in turn will start rehabilitating prisoners from early next year.
Dr. Jayadev Sarangi an expert on prisons from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime will conduct the workshop.
Senior Prison Officer Ibrahim Nashid said the workshop, the first of its kind will also be attended by Maldives Narcotic Control Bureau.
There are nearly 500 prisoners at present most of whom are on drug charges. Inmates are not being rehabilitated whilst serving their sentences.
Besides, there are nearly 200 prisoners who are convicted but at large due to prisons being over crowded, according to prison officials.
The need for prisoner rehabilitation has been long felt here time and again and the calls were heard aloud midst prison riots in Maafushi jail that caused the death of an inmate in June this year.
Nearly 400 inmates went on rampage inside the prison where they broke into prison pharmacy and an inmate died due to an overdose of pharmaceutical tablets.
Then, the Government invited International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) which has a mandate to visit prisons, to urgently probe the matter amidst allegations that prison officials were responsible for the death.
The Delhi based ICRC said it was keeping a close eye on prison situation in the Maldives but ruled out the need for a visit.
