151ST INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’
PAPERSPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS“RECEPTION AND ORIENTATION COMMISSION”AS A PRISON REFORM
MEASURE TO IMPROVE OFFENDERS’ TREATMENT IN MOROCCO
Abderahim Rahouti*

I. INTRODUCTION
Prison management in Morocco has suffered during the last decades from different problems and difficulties
due to many factors such as overcrowding, shortage of staff and funding, ineffective offender orientationand classification, insufficient staff training, etc. Such problems have had negative impacts on the maincorrectional mission, which is the achievement of safer prisons and less reoffending. Thus, thanks to theroyal will and directives to reform the prison system in 2008, the new correctional department’s managers
carried out a detailed diagnostic analysis of the current situation after which they elaborated strategicplans and took different measures to make the change and provide solutions to many persisting problems.
The ultimate objectives of such reform projects were to improve offenders’ conditions, enhance theirrehabilitation, maintain security and discipline in prisons and manage them with more professionalism. Oneof the main measures which was strongly emphasized and produced satisfactory results was the creation of a“Reception and Orientation Commission” in each facility. The purpose of this paper is to shed some light on
this new experience in the correctional department in Morocco.
The correctional studies and research achieved recently proved that many prison management problems
are basically due to inappropriate offender reception, orientation and classification. For this reason, there
was a reconsideration of the procedures in question, which led to the creation of a commission of reception
and orientation in each prison. This measure was a special event in and of itself and a real initiative toimprove offender treatment in Morocco. The head of the correctional department, the Delegue General ,held a meeting with prison wardens and many other officials and stressed that such reform was a realmeasure towards success. The implementation of this commission will help to ensure that inmates will be
more appropriately classified, housed and provided with necessary rehabilitative services.

II. LEGAL FRAMEWORK
It is stated in the Moroccan Prisons Act 23/98 (Article 52) that once new offenders are admitted inprisons, they must be received by medical staff and a social assistant or the director himself. This procedureis only with regard to internal classification, and it is basically performed by or under the supervision of thewarden.
External classification is managed at the level of the headquarters by a central commission whose
members are designated by the head of the correctional department, as stated in articles 21-22 of the
Prisons Act 23/98. This provision requires that classification be carried out according to many criteria,
including the offender’s age, gender, family address, criminal history, physical and mental situation, and theoffender’s profile in general.

III. THE CONSTITUTION OF THE RECEPTION AND ORIENTATION COMMISSION
With regard to both security and reinsertion levels, the Reception and Orientation Commission iscomposed of members representing different prison services: a psychologist, a social assistant, a casemanager and a member of security staff along with the social supervisor as the president of the commission.
The commission operates under the direct supervision of the warden of the prison.
* Director of the Training Academy, Division of Recruitment, Training and Improvement of Competences, D.G.A.P.R. Ifrane,
Morocco.

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IV. MISSIONS OF THE RECEPTION AND ORIENTATION COMMISSION
Generally speaking, there are three levels of missions: at the time of first reception, during incarceration
and before release.

A. At First Reception:
Once new offenders arrive at a facility, they are subject to the intake process including personal
identification and initial needs and risk assessments for both preliminary classification and treatment
purposes so as to match their needs and risks with the correctional resources. The intake process begins
with personal identification which is conducted by trained administrative staff who are generally casemanagers. Then, needs and risk assessments are completed through interviews and examinations whichallow the commission to determine housing recommendations, program assignments, treatment andeducational services required for each offender.
The medical assessment determines whether newly admitted offenders have contagious diseases that
require immediate attention. This task is usually carried out by a qualified nurse and a more thoroughphysical examination is performed by a doctor shortly thereafter. The psychologist conducts a brief
interview and may complete some psychological tests to identify the offender’s characteristics and needs
for mental health services. He asks new offenders questions about their mental health histories andcurrent mental conditions with the use of different factors related to suicide, self-injury, substance abuse,violence, etc. Of course, the result of such psychological and mental assessments provides critical data forclassification, programming and treatment.
The social assistant determines the offenders’ needs — through brief interviews and case-file analysis —in terms of educational and vocational programmes, visitation, family circumstances and other rehabilitative
services.
The case manager and the security staff conduct the offenders’ initial risk assessments based on thefindings of medical, mental and social assessments. More information is very critical to conducting acomprehensive and complete initial risk assessment. Thus, various factors are taken into considerationin this concern, including age, gender, sentence length, severity of prior and current offences, time left
to serve, criminal history, offender characteristics, prior institutional disciplinary actions, degree of
hostility, etc. Such factors are useful indicators to predict hostile behaviour, criminal conduct, escapes, etc.
Admittedly, initial risk assessment is not preformed through validated evaluation, analytic tests, standard
techniques or objective scoring forms. It relies, on the one hand, on the findings of interviews, inquiries
and case-file analysis, and, on the other hand, on the experience and subjective evaluations of professional
officials. When enough data is not available at the time of admission or shortly thereafter, risk assessment
may fail, and most of the time, insufficient data leads to poor assessments and misclassification.
Once initial needs and risk assessments are performed, commission members analyse all the collected
data and make recommendations to the warden about the new offenders’ preliminary classifications, which
the warden then reviews and either approves or changes. Thus, classification assessment relies on bothneeds and risk assessments, which are very useful to determine housing recommendations, required
intensiveness of supervision, programming, health care, etc. Risk assessment, in particular, is very criticalto predict offenders’ misconduct and to identify those with high probabilities of misbehaviour or those indanger of causing injury to themselves, others or property.
To facilitate new offenders’ adaptation and acquaint them with the facility’s rules and regulations, thecommission provides them with orientation including information about their rights and responsibilities.
New inmates are also allowed to contact their families to inform them about their imprisonment, and they
are asked to provide a relative’s or a friend’s phone number so that the commission can contact them in caseof emergency.

B. During the Period of Incarceration:
Duties of the commission members do not stop at the intake process; they have to collect more information
about offenders and necessary documentation to complete case files in coordination with others services. In
addition, they have to conduct a close follow-up of difficult and vulnerable cases of offenders: mainly those with

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high probabilities of misbehaviour, those with high mental health needs, and those with disabilities or othermajor medical issues.
The commission also conducts risk reassessment through more data collection, tracking and interaction
because it is not possible to accurately assess risk if there is no communication with the offenders. When
conflicts occur between offenders, the commission may intervene to mediate the dispute and show them
how to solve their problems without seeking recourse to verbal or non-verbal aggression or physicalviolence. For this reason, the psychologist or social assistant assist meetings of the disciplinary commission
in cases of an offender’s misconduct so that they can provide more information and suggestions about eachcase when necessary.
One of the main purposes of risk reassessment is to make recommendations about reclassification and to
identify, among offenders who behave themselves, those of low risk of reoffending who may be considered
as good candidates for the Royal Pardon.
Concerning rehabilitative issues, commission members, during the follow-up process, detect barriers
to an offender’s reinsertion and make suggestions to the warden so that he can take necessary measures.
They also establish contact with offenders’ families to get them involved in the process of their rehabilitation
through consistent visitation, motivation and assistance.
Under specific circumstances, offenders who meet strict requirements may be allowed a temporary
release from custody whereby they can be in the community for 10 days without a staff escort, as
stated in articles 46-49 of the Prisons Act 23/98. In case an offender applies for this temporary release,commission members review his application, provide an objective evaluation of his conduct and offer theirrecommendations. In addition, the commission communicates with the judge in charge of supervising“sentence-application” and shares information and difficulties related to offenders’ life management andproblems.

C. Before Release
Since the ultimate objective of imprisonment has become rehabilitation and reducing reoffending, thecommission’s duty in this regard is to ensure that offenders are released with preparation, guidance andassistance to facilitate their reintegration into society. In addition, the commission coordinates with the postrelease units of “King Med VI Offenders’ Reinsertion Institution” concerning offenders soon to be released.
The purpose is to make sure they will receive the required assistance from qualified, certified individuals
who participated in rehabilitative programmes.
V. COMMISSION DUTIESThe Reception and Orientation Commission has many administrative duties to carry out. First, it has tocomplete the case file of each offender (penal, medical, social, disciplinary, etc.) and make sure that the file
will follow the offender to any prison to which the offender is transferred. This is for tracking and treatment
purposes.
The commission also has to make three main reports providing statistics, achievements and encounteredproblems as follows:•

Write a detailed report every month to the warden including observations about new offenders andoffering suggestions about the management of their incarceration.

•

Make a report every three months to the warden giving statistics about different offenders’ programmes
together with encountered problems and suggested remedies.

•

Make a report every six months explaining the detected social, psychological and mental phenomena
related to offenders’ situations and life conditions in addition to anti-social acts with explanations
about their causes and consequences.

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VI. PROBLEMS AND DIFFICULTIES
Since the constitution of Reception and Orientation Commissions in prisons, they have accomplishedmany achievements mainly in terms of orientation, needs and risk assessments, and classification.
However, while carrying out their duties, they encounter many problems and difficulties namely in terms ofcorrectional resources.
The first big problem lies in the overcrowding of Moroccan prisons which is an old issue and still
represents a real barrier to perform appropriate classification. In order to overcome such a problem, seven
new prisons have been built recently with modern characteristics taking into consideration both security
and rehabilitation requirements in terms of housing units, recreation areas, vocational training centers,
infirmaries, etc. At the same time, four old prisons have been closed because they are no longer acceptable.
Other existing old facilities do not have sufficient housing units and appropriate infrastructure to apply
classification recommendations correctly. For this reason, extensions and additional housing units have been
built in four prisons which have enough space to allow that.
The Code of Criminal Procedure in Morocco considers offenders as unconvicted until they are triedand proven guilty. Thus, many offenders may appeal after being tried for the first or second time, and they
may be released before their trials are held. As a result of this, about 40% of the offender population is nonconvicted. This situation represents a big problem to improve classification, and does not allow satisfactory
achievement of offender programmes, knowing that unconvicted offenders are accommodated in almost all
types of prisons.

Total convicted and unconvicted inmates (2008-2011)

The ratio of convicted and unconvicted inmates (2008-2011)

In terms of human resources, the shortage of staff does not allow for effective tracking, constantsupervision or appropriate treatment of offenders: 8,969 employees, including administrative staff, for morethan 66,000 inmates. More than 3,000 employees have been hired in the past four years; however, thenumber of correctional staff remains insufficient to perform prison reforms properly.

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For rehabilitation purposes, the correctional department recruited over the past three years manytechnicians in different fields, such as social assistants, teachers, psychologists, nurses, and prison
commanders who are master’s-level administrative employees. This was not the case before and is thanks
to a growing awareness that prison management does not only need security employees and correctional
officers. Despite such new policies of recruiting, some facilities still do not have psychologists or social
assistants; this problem has had negative impacts on the performance of the Reception and Orientation
Commission in particular. This is due to the fact that even when job announcements are made in this regard,
few or no applications are normally made.
2007

2008

2009

2010

2011

Total

Technicians

23

0

125

156

141

445

Prison commanders

31

0

97

126

148

402

Doctors

0

5

9

16

19

49

Dentists

4

4

5

9

13

35

Pharmacists

0

0

1

0

1

2

Administrators

0

1

35

1

0

37

Psychologists

0

0

7

2

0

9

Social assistants

0

0

17

9

0

28

Teachers

0

0

9

16

19

44

Nurses

0

0

8

1

49

58

Correctional officers

0

305

800

799

811

2715

Another problem relating to human resources lies in their qualification and performance because staff
training was not emphasized as has been the case during the last four years. As a matter of fact, basic andrefresher training remains a useful tool to carry on correctional reforms and improve prison management.

Staff Basic Training from 2008 to 2011

VII. ACHIEVEMENTS
The creation of Reception and Orientation Commissions was an achievement and a turning point because
it made it possible to emphasize issues like orientation, needs and risk assessments, classification, etc. In
addition, despite the inadequacy of correctional resources with regard to requirements in terms of staff,
equipment, housing units, etc., great achievements have been made, like the reduction of violence rates,
contraband, and prison breaks. This is due to better risk assessment, mediation, tracking, better supervision,and assistance provided by commission members and their collaborators.

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Rates of Prison Break from 2005 to 2011
Years

Prison breaks

Total Offenders

(%)

2005

23

50,9330.0451

2006

21

53,5440.0392

2007

20

54,6600.03652008

30

59,2120.05062009

357,5630.00522010

564,8770.00772011

3

64,8330.0046In terms of reinsertion, the improved aspects of reception, orientation, mediation, psychological andsocial assistance, etc. helped many offenders and their families change their attitudes and have more
confidence and trust in the prison staff and correctional programmes. In addition, the recruitment of new
categories of employees (other than correctional officers) has had a positive impact on the elaboration andperformance of more cultural and recreational programmes. On the other hand, thanks to efforts madeby these new categories of employees, good results have been made in terms of productive-use-of-time
activities and the number of inmates participating in educational and vocational programmes.

Cultural and recreational activities from 2008 to 2011

Offenders participating in vocational and educational programmes

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Recruiting more doctors over the past four years (+43%) has made it possible to improve medical
assessment and health care, which are very useful to offenders’ reception, classification and treatment.

Disposition of medical staff

The creation of Reception and Orientation Commissions made it possible also to improve offenders’classification and treatment. As a result of this, every offender gets what he or she deserves, in general: incases of good conduct, privileges are allowed and in cases of misbehaviour, disciplinary measures are taken,
and thus reclassification procedures are objectively applied.
At the same time, 38 of 68 prisons have now what we call “Pedagogical Centers” equipped and managed
by the “King Med VI Offenders’ Reinsertion Institution,” which is regarded as the first partner of thecorrectional department. Such great achievements allowed the elaboration of various vocational andeducational programmes, reduced offenders’ idleness and contributed in many ways to the improvement ofprison management and reinsertion services.

VIII. CHALLENGES AND PROJECTS
Challenges of the department of correction are manifestly related to the encountered problems anddifficulties. One of the main challenges in this regard is to achieve a sophisticated information management
system which includes an intake module for collecting and compiling offenders’ criminal histories. In thesame way, the lack of information about the criminal history of many offenders is due to both the absenceof efficient databases and the absence of a national correctional computer linkage with courts and otherdepartments. As a matter of fact, timely, accurate and complete data would manifestly enhance offenders’needs and risk assessments which are basically related to their classification, treatment and reintegration
programmes.
In fact, the ratio of inmates per officer has been improved during the last four years: in 2008 it was 14:1,
and thanks to the increase in hiring rates it is now 11:1, whereas the ratio stands at 2:1 or 3:1 in North
American and European countries. Yet, this achievement remains insufficient for efficient supervision andoffender management. For this reason, another critical challenge is to hire more staff and provide themwith appropriate basic and refresher training, knowing that the correctional department has just built a new
training academy in Tiflet (30 km from Rabat) with modern characteristics, which will make it possible toconduct more basic and refresher training sessions for correctional staff.

Annual number of inmates and correctional staff (2008-2011)

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Finally, so as to overcome overcrowding, which has become a real dilemma in Moroccan prisons, thedepartment of corrections is building three new prisons, but the challenge in this regard is to continuebuilding more modern prisons and close old ones which counteract the carrying out of the department’s
policies in terms of both security and rehabilitation. For this reason the correctional department has
recently submitted to the government a proposal to build 12 more prisons with different capacities foraccommodation in different regions of the kingdom to meet the immediate needs.

IX. CONCLUSION
Thanks to the royal directives and strong will, the great reform initiatives and achievements have been
carried out in the past four years. However, more imperative reforms and challenges are still to be fulfilled
to reach the main objectives, which are safer prisons and better preparation of offenders for successfulcommunity reintegration. After all, a prison is a human and social-service enterprise, and its successdepends largely on offenders’ reception, classification and rehabilitation.

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