Occasionally, a glimmer of good news breaks the gloom. A new foundation, RISE (which stands for Rehabilitation in Society), has been established to help prisoners develop a useful, self-sufficient way of life that, it is genuinely hoped, will keep them away from crime and from ending behind bars again

As a first step it has opened its offices, to be followed by the establishment of a ‘transitional living facility’ where prisoners serving the final year of their sentence may enrol in a programme run by a team of psychologists and social workers.

President George Abela expressed the hope that the programme would help to reduce the present figure of some 75 per cent of inmates being repeat offenders by as much as 25-30 per cent.

The Minister for Home Affairs and National Security, responsible for the prison, spoke of the intention to offer prisoners “a menu of educational courses”.

These are vitally important steps forward. A good process of rehabilitation is one which emphasises education, the assumption of personal responsibility and progress towards citizenship.

There is growing evidence abroad that individuals in prison can be helped to desist from crime. However, up to now, the Corradino Correctional Facility severely lacked any educational or rehabilitation programme worthy of the name. Consequently, prisoners there were regressing, rather than improving, and this was detrimental to the long-term interests of society.

RISE, a good example of the voluntary sector in action, will make an important contribution to ensuring prisoners are prepared for their re-integration into society. Some people wrongly believe that harsh punishment deters crime. However, the more enlightened argue that criminals may be deterred from further crime by being given the means by which to make an honest living on release and sufficient self-esteem to convince them that they can do so.

Few people who have worked with prisoners believe that, however unpleasant the conditions and however tough the treatment, prison deters those who are determined on crime.

Almost all prisoners at the Corradino Correctional Facility will be released one day. How they then behave will depend on how successfully they are rehabilitated back into society.

Imprisonment is currently failing both prisoners and the public it is required to protect. Rehabilitation protects the public. Re-offending does not.

The aim should be to protect the public by preventing re-offending. RISE will make an important contribution towards this objective. Its vision of what should be achieved there should be centred on the preparation of prisoners to return to society and not to re-offend. This requires prisoners to be treated decently and humanely without sacrificing good order and discipline. Every prisoner should be treated as an individual, each sentence as an individual case.

Building on the admirable RISE initiative, links between the correctional facility and the wider community, including firms willing to bring skills training into prison, should be fostered. Above all, the need to ensure access to – and encouragement of – programmes of education in preparation for future employment is vital. Every activity in prison should be designed around the resettlement and rehabilitation process.

Central to such a policy should be the recognition that only through a structured programme of resettlement and rehabilitation will prisoners be enabled to return to society and not to re-offend.

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