Educating Prisoners

Annually, 12,000-20,000 prisoners acquire literacy through the Literacy Movement Organization (LMO). “The literacy services are offered under an agreement signed between the LMO and the Iran Prisons Organization (IPO) in 2014,” LMO director Ali Baqerzadeh told ILNA. At special centers set up in certain penitentiaries across the country such as the Shiraz Central Prison in Fars Province and Kerman Central Prison in Kerman Province, inmates also receive training in life skills, citizenship rights and lifestyle improving techniques in addition to literacy. According to IPO Director Asghar Jahangir, there are nearly 215,000 people in prisons in the country.