Herat inmates learning skills & earning wages

HERAT CITY (Pajhwok): In the central prison of western Herat province, a place often associated with “privations and imprisonment,” dozens of inmates are not only learning skills through technical and vocational training programmes but are also earning an income from their work.

These prisoners say although their days and nights are spent in captivity, they are grateful for the opportunity to learn different vocations.

They explain their daily engagement in acquiring new skills had made the long days in prison feel much shorter.

Ismatullah, who has been in prison for over two years, has received training in leather crafting and now produces items that are not confined to buyers inside the jail.

He said, “Customers from outside the prison also place orders with me, and I deliver the designs they prefer.”

Ismatullah spends his days in prison busy with this craft and hopes after his release, he will be able to earn an income through this skill for himself and his family.

According to him, he works daily from dawn to dusk, and it takes one to two days to make a bag.

Payam Shah, another prisoner responsible for the sewing section, said many inmates were learning tailoring in this section.

He added he and trainees stitched seven to ten suits daily, with many of their customers being government employees and individuals released from jail.

In the prison’s pastry-making section, Zubair and 11 other prisoners prepare 20 to 30 kilograms of pastries daily, which are sold inside the jail.

According to Zubair, one kilogram of pastry is sold for 50 to 60 afghanis and the contracting company pays prisoners working in this section between 200 to 500 afghanis a week in wages.

Prison or skill development centre?

Officials say prisoners are currently engaged in skill development and work across 12 industrial sections of the prison. They are also working to establish more sections to provide additional educational and learning opportunities for inmates.

Khadim Noor Omar, the head of the industrial section at Herat prison, said over a hundred prisoners were active in various sections, including carpet weaving, pastry making, beadwork, leather crafting, tailoring, boot making and other fields.

He added the number of participants in the vocations was expected to increase in the near future.

Omar believed skill acquisition opportunities helped prisoners find employment upon their release, thereby reducing the likelihood of them resorting to criminal activities due to.

Meanwhile, Sharafuddin Mukhlis, the general director of Herat prison, said all inmates were currently engaged in attending training courses.

Prisoners attend educational classes in a variety of fields, ranging from religious studies to vocational skills. In this way, they stay positively engaged and continue learning.

Mukhlis added there were currently no unemployed prisoners at Herat jail, as all of them specific daily tasks and responsibilities to discharge.

According to information from prison authorities, more than 2,500 inmates, including women and children, are currently held in the Herat central jail.

sa/mud