Shafaq News- Baghdad

Iraq plans to establish an integrated rehabilitation city for juvenile offenders, expanding education, healthcare, and vocational training as part of prison reform efforts, an official within the Ministry of Justice told Shafaq News on Tuesday.

Murad Mahdi Al-Saadi, the ministry’s spokesperson, said the rehabilitation programs will cover all convicted juveniles and include formal education, noting that the planned city will house primary and intermediate schools, as well as vocational workshops for carpentry, tailoring, and barbering. These programs aim to equip inmates with practical skills to support their reintegration after completing their sentences.

The ministry has already begun implementing a project to build a juvenile detention facility in Basra province, where construction has surpassed 30% completion, he stated.

On inmate numbers, Al-Saadi revealed that more than 1,000 juveniles are currently held in rehabilitation centers, including about 100 females, distributed across six facilities, five in Baghdad and one in Nineveh. One center is designated for females, while the remaining facilities house male inmates. He said most juvenile detainees are convicted of theft and drug-related offenses, with some cases involving murder, adding that inmates who reach legal age before completing their sentences are transferred to adult facilities. “Some offenders come from affluent backgrounds and were drawn into crime through negative peer influence.”

Freedom’s bitter price: How Iraq succeeds and fails to reform its juveniles