PRI expands work in Morocco and Tunisia

We are pleased to announce new funding to continue our work in Morocco and Tunisia, building the capacity of prison staff, tackling prison overcrowding through developing non-custodial alternatives and on establishing effective rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.

PRI continues its work with the Moroccan Prison Directorate, supported by the British Embassy’s Arab Partnership Fund, to build capacity of prison directors and senior managers to address new challenges in the prison system. This includes for example, raising awareness of the use of alternatives to imprisonment as one measure to begin tackling overcrowding. The project also targets local civil society to increase their ability to work with the prison authorities to support addressing new challenges in the criminal justice system.

PRI has also received two grants to build on its work in Tunisia, supporting the criminal justice system and civil society following the country’s revolution and recent democratic elections The first, supported by the European Union, will work with the Tunisian Prison Department to improve conditions of detention and implement rehabilitation and reintegration programmes to support men, women and children deprived of their liberty in the country. The second, supported by the US government, will see PRI work with a range of criminal justice stakeholder to set up a fully functioning pilot system of alternatives to imprisonment in the governorate of Sousse. It builds on a small pilot undertaken by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in 2013 and on advocacy and awareness raising work PRI has been doing with government stakeholders and local civil society in the country.

These projects will be implemented by PRI’s regional office in the Middle East and North Africa.