Ohe 708 books were delivered by the president of the Rotary Club of Praia, José Rebelo, to the general director of Prison Services and Social Reinsertion of Cape Verde, João Delgado, who will then distribute them to the five prisons in the country and to the Centro Education Partner Orlando Pantera, which receives children and young people in conflict with the law.
The books were mobilized by the Rotary Club of Ponte da Barca, district 1970 of Lisbon, and according to the president of the Cape Verdean counterpart, José Rebelo, have a “deep sense” in the responsibility of entities and citizens in the materialization of the necessary policies for the welfare of the state and the community.
“For this task we are not alone”, stressed the Cape Verdean, ensuring that the members and the two philanthropic institutions are available to collect more books and thus continue to contribute to the social reintegration program of Cape Verdean prisoners.
“Today I am aware that, if there is no participation by civil society, everyone’s participation to transform the community into several particular niches for its development, we will be in trouble, if we do not reach the goal of reducing the rate of recidivism and also the improvement of the social reintegration of the inmates that we have”, considered the representative of the community of leaders and professionals, which at an international level emerged in 1905.
For Cape Verde’s Minister of Justice, Joana Rosa, the donation of books is a “very important gesture” for social reintegration in the country, a job that, she said, the State has an “obligation” to do, but called for participation as well of private institutions.
“We have been confronted several times with problems, deficit, insufficiency and little wealth in our libraries, even in prisons and in the Orlando Pantera Center, and this collection ends up enriching our libraries, but essentially enriching the human being, each inmate and each student”, said the minister.
According to Joana Rosa, the Government’s vision is the humanization of chairs, which she considered involves creating better conditions, both in the physical space, but also in food, health care and work.
“When you work, when you have something to do, human beings are busy and have less time to be prone to criminality”, stressed the minister, understanding that social reintegration helps to reduce criminal recidivism.
According to the last known survey, at the end of 2018 Cape Verde had 1,567 inmates, spread across five regional prisons and two central ones.
Of that total, the Praia Central Prison received more than 1,100 prisoners, concentrating two thirds of the country’s prison population, which has two other central jails in São Vicente and Sal and regional jails in Santo Antão and Fogo.
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