Henry Kuany Aguar, director for prisons and correctional services in South Sudan has commended the role played by the United Nations development program (UNDP). He described support his department receives from the agency as vital for human development and reduction in crimes.
“Training inmates is very important. It plays a vital role in transformation. It changes the inmates, shape their thinking and reform them into new people. Prison inmates who receive general education and vocational training are significantly less likely to return to prison after release and are more likely to find employment than peers who do not receive such opportunities”, said Kuany when asked about the importance of the training equipment and materials his department received from UNDP.
There has been debate, he said, over the past years about the role prison-based education programs can play in preparing inmates to return to society and keeping them from returning to prison.
“I have been in the prison services for more than four decades and I know what it means to training the inmate. It plays a very important role in the transformation of the inmates and reduce rise in crime rate. A trained inmate is not like to repeat the same crime he or she has committed before and when this happen inmates who have been trained are not like to return to the prison for same crime”.
UNDP, he said, is in partnership with the Ministry of Interior and other developmental partners and have initiated a vocational training for inmates serving different jail terms at Juba Central prison. At least 120 inmates are currently under training. The project aims at imparting skills to the inmates in order to contribute to the development of the country once they are released. The vocational training provides welding, masonry, carpentry, tailoring, electrical and hair dressing therapy among others.