The General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration (DGAPR) has just published its annual activity report for 2022.
Presenting the document, the General Delegate for Prison Administration and Reintegration, Mohammed Salah Tamek, underlined that 2022 has been a year of work par excellence for the DGAPR, due to the remarkable events and new achievements of which it has been witness and which are added to the results of the work of the past years.
The Delegation regularly publishes annual reports to the public, based on its deep belief in the importance of the principles of communication, openness and transparency in building trust, he said, noting that overcrowding in establishments penitentiaries, is the biggest challenge facing the General Delegation in its efforts to implement various reform programs.
And to emphasize that the DGAPR devotes a large part of its efforts to modernizing the prison premises and increasing its capacities in order to respond to this dilemma and allow prisoners to serve their sentences in humane conditions.
Note that the 164-page report includes a set of axes that present figures and indicators on the prison population in Morocco.
These include the following key data in particular:
– Improvement of safety and security indicators within penitentiary establishments, thanks to compliance with preventive security programs and measures and the strengthening of surveillance and intervention equipment and facilities.
– Completion of the development work required to secure the infrastructures and the various facilities, as well as the strengthening of the surveillance and security frameworks with the protection and intervention teams implemented in all the penitentiary establishments.
– Organization of a set of training sessions which mainly concerned the training of 30 trainers on the national mechanism for the prevention of torture in partnership with the National Human Rights Council, as well as the implementation of the continuous training program for the year 2022 for the benefit of civil servants in the field of human rights through the organization of 37 training courses in this field for the benefit of 320 civil servants.
– Continuation of the strengthening of detainees’ right to complaint and claim, by supporting the mechanism for receiving and processing complaints and claims through the boxes made available to detainees in all prison establishments, as well as the central office concerned with this area.
– Reception of 6,249 complaints and requests, of which only 1,947 fall within the competence of the DGAPR. Applicable administrative and judicial measures have been taken in this regard. As for the rest of the requests and complaints that do not fall within the powers of the General Delegation, they have been transmitted to the competent external parties.
– Forty-two field investigations were carried out concerning the allegations attributed to certain detainees and employees, or the conditions of detention, the complaints received, or on the basis of a request from certain central directorates. The necessary measures have been taken on the basis of the results of these investigations.
– Reinforcement of the medical units of prison establishments with new, more efficient medical devices necessary for the diagnosis and monitoring of illnesses.
– Reinforcement of the DGAPR ambulance fleet by providing, through the National Initiative for Human Development, 4 new ambulances for the benefit of the prisons of Taounate, Midelt, Essaouira and Khénifra, bringing the total number to 66 ambulances (covering the needs of 80% of prison establishments).
– Recording of positive results and a significant improvement in the number of inmates benefiting from education programs at different levels and non-formal education during the 2021/2022 school season.
– Control of environmental issues related to wastewater in 71 penitentiary establishments (95% of all penitentiary establishments).