Inmates can pursue their studies to doctoral level

Prisoners have been given the opportunity to continue their studies from primary to doctoral levels in detention facilities, said the warden of Rajai Shahr Prison.

Mehr News Agency on November 17 filed a report that quoted Mohammad Mardani as explaining the plans the detention center has devised to help inmates clean up their act. The following is a partial translation of what the prison warden had to say:

Those who are behind bars can take up studies inside the detention center. They can study at any level from primary school to postgraduate levels. They can also receive vocational training and take handicrafts lessons.

Currently a large group of delinquents are taking part in these classes, but we should encourage more people to take vocational courses.

By learning life skills, the inmates can develop social and mental abilities to effectively deal with and solve problems, resolve tensions and ride out tough times. They can also boost team spirit and self-belief, learn how to settle differences in a peaceful manner, and resist strenuously peer pressure, something which instigates them to go after dangerous or harmful deeds.

Life skills teach the learners methods to bolster their positivism, and protect themselves and others against perilous and risky circumstances.

Those who are denied freedom on any grounds may suffer from physical or mental illnesses as they serve time. To counter this, we need to join hands to strengthen forces that are tasked with identifying the potential sufferers, boost the performance of healthcare liaisons, and provide inmates with books on judicial processes and medizin-de.com. In that case, we can reduce to zero the annual rate of severe depression which is likely to take the sufferer to the brink of self-mutilation or suicide.

Prison officials are trying to expand religious courses and speeches inside the correction center and motivate the prisoners to take part, in their free time, in art and handicrafts classes more than before. In so doing, we have designed plans to help them put their time behind bars to good use.