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Seminar on the Tokyo and Bangkok Rules addressed to officials in Panama

Panama, October 26, 2020. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for Central America and the Caribbean, through the Project to Consolidate the Criminal Procedure Reform in Panama, held a virtual seminar on the Tokyo and Bangkok Rules on October 21.

The training was given by Muriel Jourdan, Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer and UNODC Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Detainees Focal Point.

Jourdan explained that alternative measures to imprisonment aim to provide a more adapted response to the phenomenon of crime; avoid the adverse effects of imprisonment; reduce prison population and overcrowding; reduce the cost of sentence enforcement, decrease the risk of recidivism and improve the possibility of social reintegration of the offender.

Compliance judges, public defenders and staff of the interdisciplinary teams of the Judicial Body (55); as well as custodians, psychologists and social workers from the National Directorate of the Prison System of the Ministry of Government (25) participated in this activity.

"When I listen to a person who is committed to his work and, above all, maintains sensitivity to the most vulnerable, it is a pleasure to listen and take ideas," said Elizabeth Berroa, compliance judge who participated in the training. She added that "our countries - governors, authorities, judges, and society itself - require a lot of awareness. It hurts to see many women serving sentences because poverty makes them needy and crime takes advantage of the opportunity.