“With their participation in the exhibition the prisoners want to convey the message that they are human beings endowed with artistic creativity and productivity even though they are behind bars,” said Hisham Al-Harithy, executive director of Ras Al-Mashriq Holding, which trains and rehabilitates inmates. 

Prisoners in Jeddah are producing an average of 20,000 pieces of gift items daily, he said.

Al-Harithy said the project to train and rehabilitate prisoners is part of a social service program to convert inmates to productive citizens by making them learn handicrafts and other trades so that they become capable of supporting their families when they go out of prisons.

He said the company lately opened a massive production line under the supervision of artist Abdul Hafiz Al-Ghamdi, and prepared a training center inside a Jeddah jail in collaboration with the General Directorate of Prisons. The center provides an environment of learning painting and engraving and creation of fancy articles.

The center, which manufactures 20,000 pieces of gift items daily, plans to increase its daily capacity to 100,000 pieces in 2011. The company also plans to export prisoner-made products to other countries, he said.