Islamabad, 16 December 2022 – United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in partnership with the Reclamation and Probation Directorates of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Balochistan conducted two 4-day joint training workshops on supervising, rehabilitating, and reintegrating offenders into the community. The training was organized for parole and probation officers from Balochistan and KP under the European Union supported ‘Deliver Justice Project’.

Probation is a sanction that allows convicted offenders to rehabilitate by conditionally reintegrating them into the community while they serve their sentence as an alternative to imprisonment. An offender on probation is called a probationer and is supervised by a probation officer. The probationers are usually first-time, non-violent offenders who are deemed appropriate to rejoin the community under supervision.

In Pakistan where most jails are overcrowded, the practice of probation, on one hand, relieves the system and on the other, prevents offenders from lapsing into the vicious cycle of reoffence through correctional methods. This makes the KP and Balochistan Reclamation and Probation Directorates important organs of the criminal justice system. The training, therefore, focused on engaging the staff of the directorates in practical-skill-based sessions on supervising, rehabilitating, and reintegrating offenders.

The workshops included sessions on communication, report writing skills, understanding the criminal justice system, international legal systems, preventing recidivism, and social integration of offenders and offending behaviour. It also provided a unique opportunity for the probation and parole officers to share their experiences, challenges, and opportunities they face in their line of work. A session on Pakistan’s constitutional guarantees and international commitments to raise gender-sensitization among the participants was  delivered by UN WOMEN Pakistan.

Mr Mualim Jan, Director, Reclamation and Probation Directorate, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa attended the workshop as its chief guest. He praised the efforts of UNDP, UNODC, and UN Women to develop and conduct this much-needed capacity development programme. He said, “Reclamation and Probation Directorate of KP is committed to improving the conditions of the probation system because that doesn’t just benefit the offender or the justice system but the community at large. Training workshops like these play an instrumental role in achieving that goal.”