Inmates enrolled in vocational programs to get sentence reductions

Home Minister Ali Ihusan said on Thursday that President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu has decided to make penal reforms which will cross the days inmates spend enrolled in prison-run vocational training programs off from their prison sentence.

Addressing a ceremony held on Thursday morning at the Maafushi Prison to inaugurate a Maldivian 'cultural land' there, Ihusan said that President Muizzu plans to implement a new policy to reform the penal system.

“All inmates who join rehabilitation programs - whether it is an electric engineering course, a masonry course or a cultural course – each day they learning vocational skills or working a job will be crossed off their prison sentence,” he said.

Ihusan said that the government will make necessary legal reforms and implement the policy in an effective manner.

He said that President Muizzu aims to have inmates learn vocational skills and find a way to make a living during their incarceration, and provide them with a way to get released quickly and become productive members of society.

“It is the president’s appeal to you that rehabilitation and reform efforts begin the moment an inmate is admitted here, that they do what they need to and learn what they need to, and that they re-enter society as a productive Maldivian citizen and contribute to the development of this country,” he said.

Ihusan said the government will also facilitate a way for inmates’ creations to be marketed to tourists, both from inside the prison and at the airport.

He said that the profits earned from sales will be given to some of the inmates as renumeration.

Ihusan also announced his previously announced plans to build a central prison near Male’. He said the prison will be developed and made operational in three years, and will help to affect a significant reduction in spending on inmates.

 He said that the goal of the planned penal reforms is to minimize spending and maximize results.