INDIVIDUAL PRESENTATION ON THE REHABILITATION AND
SOCIAL REINTEGRATION OF ORGANIZED CRIME MEMBERS
AND TERRORISTS
Soufiane Ahoujil＊

The topic of extremist offenders in Morocco surfaced in May 2003 as five suicide bombings took place inCasablanca. In the ensuing crack-down, the Moroccan authorities arrested 1100 terrorist suspects (more than50 sentenced to life in prison and 16 to death). Since then, several terrorist cells have been dismantled andmany radicals have been arrested for the formation of terrorist groups and the preparation for terrorist
attacks. Thus, the Moroccan Prison Department has adopted different approaches to manage this specificcategory of offenders by ensuring effective security measures and developing and implementing suitable
reintegration programmes.
The present paper emphasizes the new management mode of offenders in Moroccan prisons, in terms ofsecurity and reintegration, while providing some relevant statistical data on regular and extremist offenders.
A. Statistical Data on Extremist Offenders in Morocco
1. Extremist Offenders in Morocco since 2008
YearExtremist offenders

Prison population%2008

85259212

1.43200973057563

1.26

2010

755

64877

1.16

2011

635

64833

0.97

2012

582

70758

0.82

2013

604

72005

0.83

2014

76474941

1.01

2015

915

74039

1,23

2016

970

76139

1.27

March
2017

1062

77784

1,36

From 2008 up until 2012, the vast majority of offenders were incarcerated since the 16th May 2003
attacks. However, starting from 2012 up until the ongoing year, the number of extremist offenders grew
bigger due to the increasing scale of the various hotbeds of tension in the world, namely Syria, Iraq, theSahelo-sub-Saharan region, and the south of Libya.

＊

Executive/Advisor, Prison and Reintegration Department, Morocco.

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2. Extremist Offenders of Foreign and Dual NationalityNationality

NumberAlgerian

2French3

Tunisian

1

Italian1

Chadian1

Turkish1

French-Algerian

1

Moroccan-French

5

Moroccan-Belgian

6

Moroccan-Dutch

1

Moroccan-Hispanic

1

Total

23

B. The New Security Approach in Extremist Offendersʼ Management
The management mode of extremist offenders in Morocco has evolved gradually. Up until 2014, extremist
offenders were gathered in four correctional facilities. Hence, they were able to undertake collective andconcerted actions, like the riot they started in one correctional facility. From then on, the Correctional
Department decided to reconsider extremist offendersʼ classification by dispersing them in 47 correctional
facilities, mixing most of them with common-law offenders. However, this procedure also proved to havesome drawbacks, such as the tendency of extremist offenders to indoctrinate regular ones. In line with thesemeasures, the UNODC Handbook on the Management of Violent Extremist Prisoners suggests that: “violentextremists should be categorized according to the security risk (escape) and control risk (likelihood ofparticipating in activity that would disrupt the prison or radicalize other prisoners to violence) that corresponds
to the findings of their risk assessment”.
The Prison Department had also to cope with the increase of extremist offenders arrested since 2003 (815
out of 1074 offenders) connected in any way with the new hotbeds of tension, especially in Syria and Iraq. This
led to the occurrence of extremist rhetoric and attitudes in prisons, as well as connections with drugtraffickers likely to provide financial support and to smuggle contraband.
C. The New Classification System in Moroccan PrisonsThis system consists in separating extremist from regular offenders according to their risk degree.
Similarly, the UNODC Handbook on the Management of Violent Extremist Prisoners states that: “theclassification process is based on the information gained through the individual risk and needs assessment ofeach prisoner and may be further informed by potential health issues assessed in the course of the medical
examination upon admission”.
After the risk and needs assessment process, extremist offenders are classified in four subcategories toensure complete or partial isolation and efficient supervision:-48

Subcategory 1 includes: “indoctrinators”, “instigators”, “leaders”, “hard-liners”, the “indoctrinated”, and“suppliers of material support” for potential disruptive actions. Individual cells contain “indoctrinators”,“leaders”, “instigators”, the “indoctrinated” and “indoctrinators”. “Hard-liners” and “suppliers of materialsupport” are accommodated in collective cells with five beds.

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The said category has access to separate courtyards in restricted groups, with restrictions in all
movements, namely during visitation, health care, food service and reintegration programmes.
-Subcategory 2 comprises: introverted extremist offenders and those with psychological vulnerabilities.
Besides, the said category houses ideological review offenders, as well as royal pardon/amnesty
requests offenders. This isolated category is housed in high supervision units in cells with a capacity of
7 beds each. Collective recreation is organized in successive groups so as to avoid any massmovements. Offenders of this category can be directed in groups under close supervision for indoor
medical examination and outdoor hospitalization.

-Subcategory 3: is placed in cells with an accommodation capacity of 9 beds and is constituted ofcompliant offenders yet under supervision. This has reduced the number of prison facilities for thiscategory of offenders from 47 in 2016 to only 18 in April 2017.

D. Extremist Offendersʼ Participation in Regular Reintegration Programmes in 2016

Programmes

Regular Offenders

Extremist Offenders

Percentage
among Extremist
Offenders

Vocational training7341

51

4.80 %

Educational
programmes

3920

201

18.92 %

Literacy
programmes

6666

40

3.76 %

Total

17927

292

27.48 %In Moroccan prisons, as illustrated in the table above, extremist offenders are less involved in vocational
training programmes than their regular counterparts, preferring higher education in different fields, mainly
in religious sciences, law and sociology on account of the fact that only 9.03% of them are unemployed. It is
worth noting that sentence length may justify their desire to pursue long-term studies.
Similarly, the general prison population benefits from sessions of Quran memorization, guidance andreligious counselling, delivered by scholars affiliated to the Moroccan Department of Religious Endowmentand Islamic Affairs, with the purpose of safeguarding prison population from radicalization. Moreover, 109
extremist offenders out of 9,321 participated in Quran memorization programmes. In addition, 228 extremist
offenders out of 90, 460 participated in religious guidance and counselling sessions. However, extremist
offendersʼ low rate of participation in these programmes may be due to the prejudice they hold against official
Islamic scholars. However, many of them are fully involved in religious contests, such as Quran psalmody,
prophetic Hadiths memorization and Quranic exegesis.
1. Counter-Radicalization Programmes
In early 2016, the Moroccan Correctional department signed a convention with the UNDP on support for
Prison system reform, in cooperation with the Rabita Mohammedia of Islamic scholars, which developed andimplemented a specific programme funded by the Japanese government, aiming namely at training
correctional staff members and religious scholars to identify and analyse extremist signs, attitudes andbehaviours, by deconstructing extremist religious rhetoric to prevent regular offendersʼ radicalization.
The first category of participants is constituted mainly of security chiefs and social workers trained byexperts from the Rabita Mohammedia of Islamic scholars. The second category includes peer educators
trained by the first category. The training is more didactic than pedagogical, as the kind of language usedduring sensitizing and persuasion activities is made clear to all offenders.

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The training of peer educators started in 6 piloting prison facilities with a view to training 120 peer
educators in 60 training sessions. Each session involves 20 offenders, i.e. the total number of offenders tosensitize is 22.000 offenders. For their part, peer educators are assisted by supervisors among the trainedcorrectional staff and religious scholars. Being in charge of the overall follow-up of sensitizing activities, eachsupervisor assists binomial teams in implementing an evaluation grid on a quarterly basis in each of the sixcorrections. Hence, to implement the training programme, the Rabita Mohammedia of Ulemas developed atraining guide aimed at achieving capacity and skill building relating to counter-radicalization in corrections.
The table below illustrates the number of extremist offenders involved in peer education. Two extremist
offenders operated as peer educators for offendersʼ sensitization:
TargetPopulation

RegularOffenders

500

465

Extremist Offenders

Salafi-Jihadists

ISIL Jihadists
FTFs/Supporters/
Sympathizers

1124

Some extremist offenders expressed their wish to participate in peer education:
Salafi-Jihadists

ISIL Jihadists
FTFs/Supporters/
Sympathizers

Total

0906

15

2. Creating Room for Open Debate and Interaction
Two major events were held in this regard. The first one under the theme: “Citizenship as a key toreinsertion”, which is a summer university organized in September 2016 by the Correctional Department in
partnership with national reintegration, human rights and academic institutions and organizations.
In 2017, a Spring University was organized under the theme: “The Preparation of Inmates: What Role
Could Elected Representatives Play?” Among addressed topics was offendersʼ voting, (especially those whoare not deemed eligible), as well as the role of the parliament in supporting Prisonsʼ overall strategy andoffendersʼ reintegration programmes. Noteworthy, 17 Extremist offenders out of 129 have partaken in
activities conducted by the two universities and 20 offenders out of 165 in the second one. Participants have
had a successful education path or vocational training. They even have shown great interest in the topics
covered and interacted constructively with the lecturers. The general purpose of the meeting was to makeextremist offenders call in question their extremist mode of thinking.
The two universities had very positive feedback on the public opinion, more importantly on extremist
offenders. At the closing ceremony of Spring University, a speech was delivered by a Salafi jihadist extremist
offender connected with the 16th May 2003 terrorist attacks in Casablanca, Morocco. During the event, heexpressed his readiness and that of his counterparts to interact positively and constructively with all kinds ofinitiatives aiming at their reintegration in society, expressing their will to prohibit extremist thoughts andremain devoted to the Moroccan stateʼs fundamental constants.
Civil society actors, members of diplomatic missions and local representatives have all highly appreciatedand encouraged the initiative. Likewise, the head of the Prison Department received several letters ofgratitude, not only from extremist offenders participating in those debate platforms, but also from those who
did not participate at all: they manifested their interest and wished such an approach in offendersʼreintegration may continue.
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3. Cooperation with International Agencies and NGOs on Deradicalization via Staff Training
Staff training is a key factor to successful deradicalization. In this respect, correctional personnel are to besensitized and well trained on detecting signs of radicalization. They are also required to learn ways andtechniques of radicalization, accountability, professional confidentiality, effective professional communication,
conflict management, mediation, ethics, etc. as a means of preventing regular offendersʼ manipulation orrecruitment by radical offenders. To this end, a training guide was developed in 2016 on radicalization
prevention in prisons.
In 2016, all correctional psychologists were involved in a training programme delivered by international
experts in cooperation with UNICRI on psycho-social assistance to prison populations in general and extremist offenders in particular, while implementing related good practices.
In cooperation with the Global Centre on Cooperative Security (GCCS) a tailored and targeted a training
programme (CVE/P) was developed, which was conducted in March 2017 on behalf of 23 frontline prison
officials to help them better manage extremist offenders by focusing on understanding and identifying violent
extremism and radicalization, identifying the best methods and practices in the management of extremist
offenders, as well as defining the role of correctional staff in addressing radicalization in prisons.

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