Morocco adopts bill on alternative sentences to reduce congestion in prisons

The upper and lower houses of the Moroccan parliament have both approved a bill that introduces alternative sentences with the aim of reducing overpopulation in Morocco’s prisons.

The bill was advocated by the government as a solution to overcrowded Moroccan prisons.

The prison population in Morocco surpassed 158% of capacity across the country’s 76 prisons, according to 2023 figures.

The bill introduces fines to replace prison terms in some cases in addition to rehabilitation, compensation, and protection for the victims.

Alternative sentences exclude crimes relating to terrorism, state security, dissipation of state funds, drug trafficking, abuse of power, pedophilia, and trafficking of human organs.

Head of the prison observatory which campaigns for prisoners’ rights Abdellatif Rafoua said the bill would reduce prison population, noting that 23% of inmates had short prison sentences that could be replaced by alternative sentences.