Credit for education
Every day that young inmates spend in education programs of at least three months’ duration, in vocational training, or attending a school of any level will be counted as two days of their sentence, according to a presidential decree from the Justice Ministry offering incentives for young offenders to become rehabilitated into society. Justice Minister Philippos Petsalnikos said recently that the opening of the first junior high school at the Avlona juvenile offenders’ unit and the second junior high school branch at the Volos unit marked a new beginning by: (1) raising the maximum on sentence reduction to encourage more and more young inmates to attend educational programs at all levels and the vocational training programs, providing them with qualifications to help them find a job on release; and (2) removing disincentives for inmates attending education programs and spending time studying while other inmates put in work time to reduce their sentences, by which most current inmates prefer to work rather than study.
