Jails could be forced to reject new inmates as alternative sentences fall short, prison chief says

Morocco’s prisons could eventually be forced to refuse new inmates because of overcrowding, prison chief Mohamed Salah Tamek warned, calling for major changes to criminal laws to reduce the number of people behind bars.

Speaking during a parliamentary discussion of the General Delegation for Prison Administration and Reintegration’s budget on Wednesday, Tamek said building more prisons, expanding alternative sentences and limiting pretrial detention had failed to provide lasting solutions.

He said prisons could reach a point where they have no choice but to ask prosecutors or judges to find alternatives for new detainees until space becomes available.

Tamek criticized the limited use of alternative sentences, saying the prison administration had provided what is needed to make them work.

As of Nov. 9, authorities had issued 4,864 decisions involving alternative sentences, but only 90 involved electronic monitoring, he said.

The prison administration has contacted 16 central government departments and 500 local administrations to provide placements for people sentenced to unpaid community service.

Tamek blamed the judiciary for the slow implementation, citing 10,998 requests submitted by the prison administration to judges by the end of August to replace prison terms with alternative penalties. Of these, 7,244 were rejected, 1,310 were approved and 2,444 had received no response. Prosecutors filed 285 appeals.

He said the prison administration had repeatedly sought royal pardons to release large numbers of inmates and ease overcrowding, but the pressure returned soon afterward.

The scale of the problem is particularly clear at Casablanca’s Oukacha prison, which has an official capacity of 4,500 inmates but currently holds about 12,000, Tamek said.

He called for changes to the criminal code rather than temporary measures, suggesting that authorities should consider preventing prisons from accepting additional inmates when no beds are available. Such detainees could remain outside prison under electronic monitoring until space opens up, he said.

Tamek addressed pretrial detention, saying people held under this status currently account for about 9% of inmates, down from 12% during the judicial vacation period and 8% at an earlier point.

However, he said the figures reflect a change in the legal definition of pretrial detention under amendments to the Code of Criminal Procedure.