Athena Dimitriou, Deputy Director of Cyprus Prisons, describes to CUP’s Eleni Takou how the pandemic affected everyday life in Cyprus’ central prison. Firstly, I was wondering whether you could tell us a few things about your daily work routine prior to the pandemic and how it has now changed amid the pandemic. “Not many things changed in my daily life, in fact during the period of the coronavirus we worked harder and at a more intense pace. Even though there was a curfew, we would stay up late at night so that the necessary protective measures would be issued
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Upskilling prisoners is key to reintegrate them into society and work
Victor Hugo once said: “He who opens a school door, closes a prison”. What does this mean? What is the added value of education programmes in prisons in the 21st century? “Victor Hugo’s famous words are still very relevant today. Education offered in prisons is a way to empower individuals by offering them new skills, knowledge about basic and advanced competences the lack of which may have contributed in directing them to deviance and crime in the first place. Many studies show that a significant proportion of men and women in prisons are low-skilled. Nearly half of them have no
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