$100,000 from the Social Welfare Department's Poverty Alleviation Program will be redeployed to the Prisons and Correctional Services for rehabilitation of ex-offenders under the Yellow Ribbon Project.

This has been approved by Cabinet.

At Cabinet's meeting yesterday, Social Welfare Minister Dr Jiko Luveni said the government allocated $1 million each year under the Poverty Alleviation Program to recipients of the Social Welfare Department, including ex-prisoners, to apply for a grant of up to $5,000 to assist them to build a house or start a small business.

She said ex-prisoners, as a group, receives about half of the total amount as this is limited to building a house or starting a small business.

Luveni added that extending the Poverty Alleviation Program scheme to allow prisoners to apply while serving their sentence would provide an incentive for many prisoners to address their offending behavior and be built into individual sentence planning, in preparation for release.

129 inmates are expected to be released in the 4th quarter of this year and rehab assistance will be targeted to those who meet the set criteria for assistance.