A new bill guiding criminal policy for 2025-2027 seeks to use prisoners to help clear scrubland and similar ahead of summer wildfires.
The bill, approved in the Council of Ministers last Friday, has been sent to parliament for ‘discussion and approval’, writes Lusa today.
“The Portuguese government wants prisoners to clear scrubland and forests as part of prison work to help prevent forest fires (…) In a chapter dedicated to forest fire prevention, the government establishes that ‘the Directorate-General for Reintegration and Prison Services (DGRSP), in conjunction with prisons, shall develop and implement social reintegration and prison work programmes, in accordance with the law, which include activities of public utility’, including the clearing, maintenance and improvement of land, woods and forest areas”.
The “reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery of natural spaces, infrastructure and equipment affected by fires” and the “implementation of collective risk prevention and civil protection actions” are other activities listed.
This is a ‘huge step’ in a new direction: the criminal policy for 2023-2025 for instance, considered the crime of forest fire “a priority for prevention and investigation” – but no specific measures to help prevent fires were defined.
In this new bill, the government also determines that the ICNF (Institute for Nature Conservation and Forests) will promote, in conjunction with other entities, “prevention measures in forest areas”, through the “mapping of forest areas for priority intervention”, the use of drones for surveillance and detection of hotspots, and the “creation of hotlines and forest fire risk alerts”.
Implementation of “awareness programmes, actions and exercises” are other measures outlined.
Violent crime, domestic violence and corruption are some of the crimes that remain priorities in relation to the previous two-year period – with the fight against hatred, sabotage and/ or attacks on critical infrastructure, and the violation of sanctions imposed on Russia in the context of the invasion of Ukraine, constituting other developments.
Source material: LUSA
