Experts: Rehabilitate SoE detainees to prevent crime surge

To pre­vent an up­surge in crim­i­nal ac­tiv­i­ty fol­low­ing the re­lease of more than 500 peo­ple de­tained with­out charge dur­ing the State of Emer­gency (SoE), Sean De Mills says the State must now fo­cus on re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion and rein­te­gra­tion pro­grammes.

“I be­lieve the pris­ons are un­der­fund­ed, un­der­staffed and over­crowd­ed. They do not have the re­sources to do ex­act­ly what we are speak­ing about here. So peo­ple come out of the sys­tem worse than they went in. They come out an­gry. They come out hurt. They come out recog­nis­ing that, in some cas­es, their fam­i­lies have moved on.”

De Mills ar­gued that many de­tainees were held with­out charge and are be­ing re­leased in­to a so­ci­ety that has al­ready brand­ed them crim­i­nals. Some, he said, have lost their jobs, rep­u­ta­tions and sup­port sys­tems, in­creas­ing the risk that they may turn to crime.