Of this total, 2,233 elderly prisoners are men and 91 are women, he pointed out at the national conference on legal, social and health protection of elderly prisoners, organized by DGAPR.

Concerning the level of education of elderly prisoners, the official stressed that 34% are illiterate, 39% have basic education, 8% a middle-school level, 10% a high-school level and 9% a university level.

Regarding the distribution of elderly prisoners according to the length of their sentence, he said that 344 have not yet been sentenced, 274 serve a sentence of at least 6 months in prison, 339 are sentenced to more than 6 months to 1 year in prison, 310 more than 1 year to 2 years, 464 more 2 years to 5 years, 287 5 to 10 years, 271 10 to 30 years, while three were sentenced to death and 31 for life.

Furthermore, Bennasser stressed that a range of measures have been taken by DGAPR to promote the situation of elderly prisoners, notably promoting communication with their families and developing qualification, literacy and non-formal education programs.