A senior Dubai Police official has called for a comprehensive programme to enable women prisoners communicate with their families through the Internet and by facilitating the travel of family members to prisons.


Dr Brigadier Jamal Mohamed Al Mari, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Dubai Police, has made this suggestion to the officials of Dubai Department of Punitive and Corrective Establishment.

He said families of women prisoners could be brought from abroad to facilitate the meetings subject to certain conditions in tune with prison regulations.

This came during his visit on Wednesday to the women's prison in Dubai as part of the annual inspection of police stations and departments.

He praised the services provided by the officials at the women's prison and the rehabilitation and training programmes for the female inmates.

He said that the problems posed by women prisoners have become less recently due to their involvement in handicrafts, Holy Quran memorisation and other activities. Some of the inmates had also embraced Islam.

He praised the role of the psychiatrists and social workers and underlined the importance of psychotherapy for the women prisoners to enable their future integration into the mainstream of society.

Al Mari said that some of the women prisoners have talents in certain areas and they should be encouraged to enhance their skills. He suggested that the punitive and corrective establishment market their products, especially the quality handicraft items.

He reviewed the statistics of 2004 and 2005 which included the number of women prisoners, their nationalities and the training programmes they attended.

Al Mari also watched a presentation about the latest techniques in purchasing from supermarkets on the new premises in Al Aweer and called the officials to use these methods to provide better services to prisoners.