Arab conference urges more training for penal institutions staff

The 17th conference of heads of Arab penal and reformatory institutions on Thursday urged paying more attention to training and qualifying staff at penal institutions in keeping with the international criteria for dealing with inmates.
Recommendations of the conference, held here, stressed the necessity of preserving rights of inmates with special needs, a statement by the Arab Interior Ministers Council general secretariat.
The conference also stressed the importance of specifications of buildings and utilities in these facilities to improve inmates' conditions. It urged boosting the Arab cooperation in this regard, in addition to activating cooperation with human organizations concerned with caring for inmates with special needs, in terms of health, religion and culture.
As for the mechanisms of countering acts of riot in these institutions, the event urged the member states to work harder so as to prevent them, increasing respect to inmates' rights through providing them with due care that would not prompt such acts.
The two-day conference was attended by representatives of all the Arab interior ministries, the Arab League and the Naif Arab Academy for Security Sciences.
The Kuwaiti delegation to the conference, led by assistant director general for Reform Institutions Brigadier Adel Al-Ibrahim, included head of the Central Prison lieutenant-colonel Khalid Al-Dawila and the country's representative at the Tunis-based Arab Interior Ministers Council Khalid Abu Suleib.