Training for prison directors and senior prison officials in Jordan on applying international standards

Last week, PRI’s Middle East and North Africa office organised the fourth in a series of training workshops targeted at prison directors and senior prison officials in Jordan.

20 participants gathered at by the shores of the Dead Sea to attend this three-day training course on the international standards ratified by Jordan which govern their work.

Taghreed Jaber, PRI Regional Director said: “It is vital as part of a comprehensive penal reform strategy that penal institutions are open to international and domestic organisations”. This, she added, “will guarantee better respect for international standards”.

Brigadier Hani Al-Majali, Director of Rehabilitation Centers in Jordan said at the opening: “The world is entering a new phase. Respecting international standards is essential and required by His Majesty’s directives to prison officials. Reform is our choice – we have started replacing old detention centres by new ones which meet international standards. Our target now is to institutionalise after-care.”

Workshop discussions were moderated by experts from Tunisia, Algeria, and Jordan and focused on the classification of vulnerable groups, minimum standards when dealing with women and women with children, children in conflict with the law, the sick and the elderly, the legal framework governing the management of detention centres in Jordan and its response to international standards.

Work on Day 3 of the training focused on after-care and reintegration of prisoners, as well as the internal and external mechanisms of control and inspection to protect the rights of vulnerable groups.

PRI has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Department of Rehabilitation Centers in Jordan. The agreement covers training management cadres and creating and training a team of civil society organisations to follow up after-care services, which will start work in mid-February 2013.

Three other workshops for high-level prison officials have already taken place in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. These training sessions are part of the project – ‘Towards a Humanistic based approach in the management of prisons: Protecting the rights of vulnerable groups’.