Algeria
In 2005 the Algerian government embarked on an ambitious programme to build 81 new prisons and to renovate many of the existing prisons which had remained virtually unchanged since the colonial era. The Ministry of Justice and the General Directorate for Prison Administration and Resettlement (DGAPR) understood from the outset that it would be pointless to renovate the physical buildings without having a parallel renovation and reinvigoration of the administrative structure and the management of the prison system.