Moroccan judges mobilise to aid underage offenders

2007-07-10

A delegation of Moroccan legal professionals visited Casablanca's Centre for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Young Offenders recently, to provide detainees a humane and educational dimension to their sentences.

By Hassan Benmehdi for Magharebia in Casablanca – 10/07/2007

[Hassan Benmehdi] The Hassania Association meet during their visit to a Casablanca penitentiary.

A panel of Moroccan magistrates travelled to Casablanca’s Centre for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Young Offenders last week to evaluate firsthand the state of the institution and to distribute 6,000 books to the prisoners.

Moustapha Fares, President of the Hassania Association of Judges, an organisation which defends the independence of the judiciary, said the initiative is part of a national effort to reintegrate prisoners into society.

Fares told Magharebia the book distribution campaign is crucial to the education of the young offenders. "We feel the book is an effective means of opening up, educating and reintegrating this category of prisoners, unlike the others," he explained. Education, training and rehabilitation of prisoners are already responsibilities of the penitentiary, but the Hassania Association's programme will provide necessary support.

The Ministry of Justice places the number of minor offenders in Morocco -- those under 21 years of age-- at 3,969 as of April 1st, 2007. Of these offenders, 900 are under 18 years of age. According to Minister of Justice Mohamed Bouzoubaa, the number of minors enrolled in educational or vocational training programmes during the 2006-2007 academic year reached 2,472 prisoners, 868 in primary education, 159 in secondary education and 1,445 in professional training.

Mohamed Lididi, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Justice, said the campaign is a first for Morocco "because these are magistrates acting for the benefit of young detainees. A new act [compared to] their usual activity," he said. Lididi then explained the action is an expression of the human and cultural dimensions of the youths' sentences, the main objective of which remains the reintegration of prisoners into society.

Assia Ouadia, Educational Director of Casablanca’s Centre of Rehabilitation of Young Offenders, said reading continues to be an effective instrument to train, cultivate and educate young offenders. "This operation must be included in an ongoing national programme, and must not be left hypothetical," she was eager to specify. "Compared to other initiatives undertaken with the aim of reintegrating young offenders, reading could rid them of bad behaviour and minimize the dangers of their erring ways"

The Hassania Association of Judges reserved a budget 400,000 dirhams for the book distribution campaign.

Judges, representatives of the Ministry of Justice and journalists were also invited to make a visit to Casablanca’s Centre for the Rehabilitation and Reintegration of Young Offenders. According to the Centre's director, the objective of the visits is to inform the Moroccan public of the conditions in which the young offenders are developing, as well as the results of the efforts undertaken by the state and civil society to reintegrate these young people into society.