Rehabilitation for offenders through reading

Sharjah / Emirates Business

A delegation from Knowledge without Borders (KwB), the Sharjah based cultural project, recently visited the Department of Punitive and Reformatory Establishments in Sharjah. On the agenda for the meeting was the effective rehabilitation of criminals through the habit of reading, with the aim being to successfully reintroduce them into society as model citizens.
Headed by Rashid Al Kous, General Manager of KwB, the project’s representatives met with Colonel Khalifa Al Marri, Director of Punitive Reformatory Establishment at Sharjah Police and Colonel Ahmed Abdul Aziz Shuhail, Deputy Director of the Department of Punitive and Reformatory Establishment at Sharjah Police, as well as with a number of the department’s officials, to discuss joint cooperation.
The meeting was initiated as a tangible manifestation of the vision of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, to care for offenders and was in alignment with the departments’ strategic goal, which is to reform inmates and rehabilitate them physically, psychologically, socially and legally. Specific to its agenda,
the department’s need for
books, library and workshop facilities were discussed during
the meeting.
The visit saw the KwB delegation given a tour of the inmates’ library, which comprises 500 titles in a variety of genres; including religion, culture, science and history, with its titles available in several languages, the most popular being English, Urdu, Arabic, Bengali, Russian and Tamil.
“Our visit to the Department of Punitive and Reformatory Establishments in Sharjah furthers the activities and efforts of KwB, which seek to promote a culture of reading among all members of the community and establish it as a daily habit. We consider the department’s inmates to be a part of the community and that it is our duty to care for them and rehabilitate them so that they can go back into society as good citizens who are willing to contribute to its advancement,” said Rashid Al Kous, General Manager of KwB.