Algeria promotes rehabilitation of women prisoners

11/11/2007

A new programme aims to help Algerian women rejoin society after serving in prison.

By Mohand Ouali for Magharebia in Algiers – 11/11/07

[Getty Images] Women with criminal records face taboo and prejudice

Women in Algeria who serve time in prison face serious challenges when re-integrating into society. To address the issue, the Algerian government has undertaken a new project in co-operation with the United Nations Development Programme to provide assistance to this often-marginalised segment of the population.

Algeria's female prison population is currently 820, Prison Administration Director Mokhtar Felioune said at an October 23rd ceremony to celebrate the re-integration of some thirty released women prisoners.

The ceremony, held at the magistrate's residence, was the first of its kind and forms one part of a re-integration strategy launched by the Ministry of Justice and the UNDP for the benefit of the prison population. "We’ve chosen to focus on women," Felioune said, "because they have more difficulty finding jobs than men. The goal is to reintegrate them fully into society." To this end, thirty sewing machines, fifteen embroidery machines and four hairdressing kits were given to the ex-prisoners.

When asked about the factors which render social rehabilitation difficult for women who have been in prison, Djamila Belhouari, a sociologist and researcher at the Centre for Research on Applied Economics for Development, said "Algerian society is still burdened with taboos and prejudice when it comes to people with criminal records – especially women, who conservatives believe should be limited to minor roles in society."

While Belhouari believes men face the same problems with regard to the authorities, in purely social terms things are more difficult for women. "Socially," she said, these women are "dead" because society takes a very dim view of women who have had run-ins with the law.

According to Belhouari, everything depends on the reason a woman went to jail. "If it is for political reasons or matters of honour, things are a bit different – that’s seen as being more 'respectable', we could say. But if it is for some other crime, society takes very little pity on them. 'El habs lerdjal', as the saying goes – prison is for men."

Mokhtar Felioune also said in his statement that "the crime rate among women is very low in Algeria," both in comparison with other countries and with the overall prison population of Algeria, which he put at over 55,000. He went on to say that most of the women are convicted of "honour-related" offences.

In his opening speech, UNDP representative Ambassador Marc Destanne de Bernis, said there can be no prison policy without a re-integration policy. He congratulated the Algerian government and the Ministry of Justice for their attention paid to this "crucial" issue, saying that Algeria's interest from an early stage makes it an "example for many countries, since it has taken its commitments with regard to human rights and the humane treatment of prisoners very seriously."

De Bernis also welcomed support the Algerian authorities have given prisoners who have received training while in jail, and referred to some of the country’s prisons as "exemplary".