TEHRAN – Providing job opportunities for 80 percent of prisoners has been projected in the current Iranian calendar year (began on March 21), Mohammad Mehdi Haj-Mohammadi, head of the Prisons Organization has stated.

“Unemployment is the root of many crimes and the vocational training and employment of them are one of the main components of their reform and education.

About 70 percent of prisoners in Iran are directly and indirectly involved in drug-related crimes. To empower and help them return to society and family, the employment of 80 percent of prisoners is targeted this year.

So far, 10 provinces of the country have achieved this goal,” Haj-Mohammadi tweeted on Thursday.

Sustained employment of prisoners during incarceration and support for the employment of prisoners’ families after release is on the agenda.

About 70 percent of prisoners in Iran are directly and indirectly involved in drug-related crimes, Eskandar Momeni, the director of headquarters for the fight against narcotics, said in November 2020.

Some 40 percent of the inmates in prisons are convicted of drug smuggling directly and 30 percent indirectly, he stated.

According to Momeni, many social harms such as divorce, violent behaviors, robbery, etc. are rooted in drug use.

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