CHAPTER 21. PREPARATION FOR RELEASE OBJECTIVE The objective of this chapter is to underline that prisoners should be prepared for reintegration into society and provided with adequate social support when they are released. ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES From the beginning of a prisoner's sentence, consideration shall be given to his or her future after release and prisoners shall be assisted in ensuring their future reintegration into society. All agencies and services responsible for the reintegration of prisoners into society shall ensure that all prisoners have means and available resources to maintain themselves in the period immediately following their release. BASIS IN INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS Principle 10 of the Basic Principles for the Treatment of Prisoners provides that: With the participation and help of the community and social institutions, and with due regard to the interests of victims, favourable conditions shall be created for the reintegration of the ex-prisoner into society under the best possible conditions. The Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners require as follows: 80. From the beginning of a prisoner's sentence consideration shall be given to his future after release and he shall be encouraged and assisted to maintain or establish such relations with persons or agencies outside the institution as may promote the best interests of his family and his own social rehabilitation. 81. (1) Services and agencies, governmental or otherwise, which assist released prisoners to re-establish themselves in society shall ensure, so far as is possible and necessary, that released prisoners be provided with appropriate documents and identification papers, have suitable homes and work to go to, are suitably and adequately clothed having regard to the climate and season, and have sufficient means to reach their destination and maintain themselves in the period immediately following their release. (2) The approved representatives of such agencies shall have all necessary access to the institution and to prisoners and shall be taken into consultation as to the future of a prisoner from the beginning of his sentence. 109