Prisoners in Morocco to receive sentence reductions based on good behavior

Morocco’s Ministry of Justice is holding discussions with various actors in the justice system in preparation for submitting the draft criminal procedure to the government council, which aims to reduce prisoners’ sentences following good behavior.

There are several measures in this draft aimed at relieving pressure on prisons and reintegrating prisoners into society.

As part of these measures, prison sentences that involve the deprivation of liberty may be reduced automatically if the prisoner has shown improvement during the execution of the sentence and in accordance with the rules governing this process.

The draft bill specifies that if a prisoner’s sentence is less than one year, each month will be worth four days. Similarly, if the sentence is over 1 year, each year will be worth one month.

Prisoners whose disciplinary action resulted in penalties were excluded from the automatic penalty reductions, in accordance with legal and regulatory requirements.

A committee that includes the prison director, the social supervisor, the chief of the Judicial Control Office, and the prison doctor automatically reduces a prisoner’s detention time after they have served one-quarter or more of their prescribed punishment.

Criminal inmates with previous convictions and improved behavior may also qualify for automatic penalties reductions, provided they remain in prison for at least half of their sentence.

The draft law does, however, establish a system in which the director of the prison can automatically reduce sentences upon certain conditions being met.

Within three days of creating the automatic reduction decision, the prison institution’s director must send a copy of it, along with the criminal record of the prisoner, to the court which determines the penalties.

Although the prison director has the power to automatically reduce the penalty, it also permits the court to stop the decision within three days of being notified.

Additionally, the court of first instance will establish a Monitoring Committee for Automatic Sentence Reduction that will decide upon penalty applications submitted by the penalty application judge.