Maafushi Prison to begin moving extremist inmates to separate unit in August

Maldives Correctional Service states it will begin work on identifying inmates at Maafushi Prison who support violent extremism and moving them to a separate unit in coming August.

Maldives Correctional Service’s media officer Aminath Yusreen Ahmed told Sun on Thursday that the agency plans on beginning work on identifying and assessing inmates who support violent extremism in August.

She said that the inmates will be moved to the maximum-security unit built at Maafushi Prison after the assessment.

“We are working on getting this started in August. The purpose is to segregate them from the general prison population and conduct rehabilitation programs for them in this unit,” she said.

“The main purpose of the unit is to ensure they are rehabilitated when they are reintegrated into society.”

The unit in question was opened back on February 3. Maldives Correctional Service has compiled separate Standard Operating Procedures for the unit, which it says was compiled based on technical expertise from United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and financial support from the European Union (EU).

The unit has the capacity to accommodate up to 100 inmates.

Yusreen said that the decision on whether inmates will be held in separate cells, or the number of inmates per cell, will be decided after the assessment.