INTRODUCTORY NOTE
It is with pride that the United Nations Asia and Far East Institute for the Prevention of Crimeand the Treatment of Offenders (UNAFEI) offers to the international community the Resource
Material Series No. 84.
This volume contains the Annual Report for 2010 and the work produced in the 147th
International Senior Seminar, conducted from 13 January to 10 February 2011. The main theme of the147th Seminar was “Community Involvement in Offender Treatment”.
Community involvement is an important element of both institutional and community-based
treatment of offenders. Detained offenders will sooner or later return to society. In order to smoothen
the reintegration process and to make it sustainable, it is essential that offenders are provided with anopportunity to achieve economic independence and with a motivation to reintegrate.
The core elements of economic independence are a secure job and accommodation. As government
or correctional authorities cannot directly provide these elements, this responsibility has to be sharedwith the community.
Similarly, measures to encourage offenders and keep them motivated throughout the processof reintegration are also essential, yet rehabilitation and social reintegration can take a substantial
period of time, and hardships are to be expected. As families, friends, and colleagues can provide
help and prevent offenders from becoming mentally isolated, restoring such relationships, orbuilding new ones, will be a very effective crime prevention measure. Support from self-helpgroups and volunteers can serve similar functions, and measures to enhance their involvement arealso worthy of consideration.
The advantages of community involvement are not limited to facilitating the reintegration process.
Many of the correctional programmes and interventions, in both institutional and community-based
settings, can be administered more effectively and efficiently with help from the community.
For example, the involvement of business entities in vocational training provided in prisons canincrease the relevance of these programmes, updating their content and responsiveness to market
needs, and in turn enhancing the employability of offenders.
NGOs, individual experts and volunteers may have more experience and expertise in dealing
with particular types of offenders or offender needs, and therefore may be able to make a
substantial contribution to their rehabilitation, such as via drug and alcohol addiction programmes,for example.
Other advantages can be derived from the participation of private enterprises in the administrationof correctional institutions. They may have creative ideas and business know-how, otherwise
unavailable to prison authorities, that can result in substantial cost-savings.
The importance of community involvement in offender treatment has long been recognized
and repeatedly mentioned in various standards and norms of the United Nations, including theUnited Nations Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners and the United Nations Standard
Minimum Rules for Non-Custodial Measures (The Tokyo Rules). More recently, the Workshop
on “Strategies and Best Practices against Overcrowding in Correctional Facilities”, organized
by UNAFEI in the framework of the Twelfth United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention andCriminal Justice (Salvador, Brazil, April 2010), discussed and examined various measures against
prison overcrowding such as diversion, sentencing alternatives to imprisonment, and early releaseprogrammes. The Workshop agreed that the co-operation and understanding of the community
were essential in implementing these measures, and reflected these sentiments in the Workshop’srecommendations.
However, engaging the attention of the community and enhancing their involvement in thetreatment of offenders is not an easy task. General fear of crime, aversion to offenders, and indifference
are some major obstacles to be addressed. Creating incentives for businesses to employ offenders, andv

providing them with coverage for potential financial loss caused by their reoffending, may have to beconsidered as well. Moreover, a framework within which the government and the community can createa partnership has to be established.
In order to achieve these goals, governments need to develop strategies to promote theircommunities’ understanding that: 1) many offenders are willing to make good-faith efforts to re-entersociety; and that 2) the ultimate beneficiary of successful offender rehabilitation is the community
itself because it will achieve the important criminal justice goal of reducing crime.
UNAFEI, as one of the institutes of the United Nations Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice
Programme Network, held this Seminar to explore various issues that relate to community
involvement in the treatment of offenders.
In this issue, in regard to the 147th International Senior Seminar, papers contributed by visiting
experts, selected individual presentation papers from among the participants, and the Reportsof the Seminar are published. I regret that not all the papers submitted by the participants of theSeminar could be published.
I would like to pay tribute to the contributions of the Government of Japan, particularly theMinistry of Justice, the Japan International Cooperation Agency, and the Asia Crime Prevention
Foundation for providing indispensable and unwavering support to UNAFEI’s international training
programmes.
Finally I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all who so unselfishly assisted in thepublication of this series; in particular, the editor of Resource Material Series No. 84, Ms. GraceLord.
July 2011

Masaki Sasaki
Director, UNAFEIvi