Labour may be therapeutic for prisoners

Jun 19, 2009 Editorial

Georgetown is undergoing a clean up that was long overdue. Courtesy of funding from the City Hall coffers and the $120 million allocation from Central Government, there has been an influx of manpower that was sadly lacking at City Hall. The council simply could not honour its wage bill much more increase the size of the staff.
Something that should have been done along time ago is now being pursued and one hopes that this is just the beginning of a trend that would not only see the beneficial use of prison labour, but also a part of the prison rehabilitation programme.
In many countries, prison labour is an integral part of the life of those communities. Work has therapeutic value. Prisoners who often have all day to plan for all the wrong things are suddenly changed people when they are put to work. For many of them, the mere chance to come from behind the prison walls and to interact with people on the worksite does wonders for the psyche of the prisoner.
In this case, the prisoners have been integral to the clearing of the cemetery that was almost a jungle. Such was the condition that potential investors took one look and walked away.
Today, people who happen to pass by Le Repentir cemetery are astounded at the removal of the jungle and the clear view that is now afforded of the communities in the vicinity of the cemetery.
For their part, the prisoners bask in the praise that is now heaped on them for the task they have performed. And each day they line up within the prison walls to resume their contribution toward beautifying the city. They work alongside the sanitation gang, they can be seen on weeder gangs and they are just about everywhere.
Given the culture of this country, people are prone to condemning prisoners to the bad parts of history. Left to them, many people would seek to have prisoners sent to some remote location and away from any association with the rest of society. However, sociologists all contend that a person who runs foul of the law is a product of the society and it behooves the society to rehabilitate him. This exercise with the city council is part of that rehabilitation.
One now expects that prison labour would be constant. There are private organizations that could use prison labour and it is not that these prisoners come cheap. They should not be exploited and indeed they are not. People requesting the services of prisoners must pay the going rates to the prisons.
Here the prison, according to statutes, split this money into three parts with one part going to the institution, one part to the prisoners and the third part going to a fund that would be accessed when the prisoner is released.
The Ministry of Home Affairs should have an institutionalised programme that could see prisoners actually being slowly rehabilitated. Those with professional skills should be used in many places where such skills are needed. For example, there are prisoners with literary skills. Some of these are actually being used behind the prison walls to help educate their peers.
There are prisoners who are mechanics and they service the prisons vehicles either in exchange for pay or for a remission of their sentence.
Those with technical skills could be used to work with any entity that could use those skills. Already, the country is complaining that it has a paucity of skills, therefore any available skill would be useful and the prisoners have some of these skills.
One must now try to pursue the idea of some prisoners being allowed to work with private enterprise thus, being in a position to make a contribution and at the same time, hone those skills.
In the past, prisoners participated in sporting events with success. Many of them later went on to great things in the society. They were boxers; some were footballers; some were steel band players who participated in competitions. Few of those who were part of these bodies returned to prison.
It would be interesting to see whether those participating in the city beautification programme would be repeat offenders. All we can say is that City Hall certainly has a record of names of people it can use in the future.

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Labour may be therapeutic for prisoners

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