Prison system report - No reform from repeat of failures

Prison is a place of punishment, but it will serve no useful purpose for society until it also functions as a place of effective rehabilitation.

Instead of exploiting the correctional opportunities, our jails are acting as training facilities and breeding grounds for hardened criminals. The deprivation of liberty is the punishment. In the captive environment, it should be possible to educate and reform prisoners for their own advantage as well as for the good of society.

The Department of Justice drew up a reform programme for the prison system in 1994. It envisaged implementing key principles of human rights outlined by the Council of Europe and the UN, but there has been a considerable gap between the principles espoused and what has been practiced within prisons. The plans have not been implemented, so nobody should be surprised those un-implemented policies are not working.