This program aims at the rehabilitation and the support of incarcerated drug users from the moment of their reception at the Roumieh central prison, until their socioeconomic (re)integration is complete.
Background:
Drug use is prohibited in Lebanon and is a crime according to legislation. Therefore, many drug users are arrested and sent to prison on a yearly basis. The latter has disastrous consequences on them and drives them to seek and try new drugs and other substitutes. The social background of these vulnerable individuals doesn’t usually help them to get out of prison. Unemployment, inactivity and friends who take drugs and offer some to them, constitute many unfavorable factors to a true social and professional reintegration. The risk of relapse is considerable without the crucial support of one’s own family and friends. An important progress is to be made when it comes to all society actors in order to solve this issue at last in an appropriate manner.
Goal of the project:
Facilitating the social and professional integration of drug users incarcerated in Lebanese prisons:
1. By giving them access, during their detention, to adequate rehabilitation programs that are appropriate for their medical, psychological, social and legal needs.
2. By working on the societal criteria that would promote their reintegration (working with the families, neighborhoods, policy-makers, etc.)
Persons of concern:
1. Incarcerated drug users
2. Families of incarcerated drug users Internal Security Forces (ISF)
3. Magistrates
4. Employers and entrepreneurs
5. The Lebanese society in general
Activities
1. Meeting prisoners, exchanging and defining the different profiles.
2. Administrating the rehabilitation centre for drug users, established by AJEMat the Roumieh prison. It aims at helping detainees to control their use of drugs and at preparing them for their release from jail and their return to social, professional and active life outside of prison.
3. Working with drug users on taking measures that can reduce the risks of relapse, with individual monitoring after their release from prison.
4. Working with the families of drug users to help them accompany and support a person who takes drugs. Denouncing a drug using family member is to be avoided, as it is intolerable and unmanageable.
5. Working with the magistrates to promote the equity of sentences against drug users.
6. Promoting the establishment of reasonable penalties that are appropriate for the problem to solve. Informing the Lebanese society about drugs. Working with recruiters and entrepreneurs for the professional reintegration of ex-prisoners.