The General Administration of Prisons and the Saudi Industrial Cities Authority have chalked out a program to enable inmates earn their living and lead an honorable life. The Prisons Administration is planning to construct an industrial city surrounding the Haier Correction House in Riyadh. The city, funded by the private sector, has been designed in a way to include several factories where the inmates would be trained and paid for the jobs. Another objective of the city is to rehabilitate the delinquents socially and morally so that they can easily assimilate in the society when they complete their jail terms, Al-Watan reported on Friday. The clauses of the agreement stipulate that the Industrial City Authority shall complete all the procedures of the establishment of the city planned on an area of 1.2 million sq meters. The project also includes an integrated network of roads and services at all the correction houses in the Kingdom. Major General Ali Bin Hussein Al-Harithy, Director General of Prisons Administration, said the establishment of factories inside the Kingdom's prisons is the brainchild of Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Minister of Interior. He said Prince Naif has always been advocating the importance of prisons as places for rehabilitation. The Prisons Administration, he said, is keen on changing the common misconceptions about prisons by training inmates on skills that would enable them to earn their living honorably besides rehabilitating them socially and psychologically. General Al-Harithy said the Ministry of Labor would decide the working hours in these factories. He said the initiative taken by the administration comes in line with the recommendations made by the Higher Council of Prisons chaired by Prince Naif for the involvement of the private sector in the administration's investments. “The inmates will be trained as per the requirement of the labor market,” He added. Brigadier Haider Al-Haider, Assistant Director General of Prisons for Rehabilitation and Reform, said the execution of this plan comes in extension of a similar plan already carried out in Madina's prisons noting that several inmates in Madina have been working in factories built within the prison's boundaries. __
