Portugal launches arson‑offender rehabilitation programme in seven prisons

Portugal’s Directorate‑General for Reinsertion and Prison Services (DGRSP) announced that the Rehabilitation Programme for Arsonists will begin in July, initially operating in seven prisons – Castelo Branco, Coimbra, Izeda (Bragança), Lisbon, Vale do Sousa, Viseu and Porto. The rollout follows the training of 20 specialist technicians scheduled for next week.

The programme, first announced in 2018 and based on the University of Kent’s Firesetting Intervention model, will be delivered individually after a pilot (2019‑2022) identified difficulties with group delivery. It targets inmates convicted of forest‑fire crimes – currently 29 pre‑trial detainees, 59 sentenced prisoners and 20 non‑imputable patients in psychiatric care – as well as 108 individuals serving suspended sentences and four under electronic monitoring outside prison.

DGRSP aims to equip staff to apply the intervention and later train additional technicians, expanding the model according to need across the prison system.