The New Opportunity Corps – Correctional facility or Home Away from Home?

Feb 17, 2013 News

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By Sharmain Grainger

Although it was established several years ago as a correctional facility for the young, the belief of those tasked with manning the New Opportunity Corps (NOC) today is evidently very different. In fact, according to Mr Brian King, Acting Administrator of the facility located at Onderneeming on the Essequibo Coast, the NOC’s current operation is more akin to the management of a large household.

This deduction was made even as he sought to explain that “NOC is a facility that offers opportunities. It is not a prison and no one is treated as a prisoner here so they are certainly not inmates but students,” King stated emphatically during a recent conversation.
Currently there are close to 150 students between the ages of 10 and 18 whose terms at NOC were sanctioned by the court system. The male and female students, according to King, live in separate dormitories that are monitored by live-in Supervisors. The staffing capacity of the facility, he disclosed, amounts to some 50 individuals.
The facility’s operation falls under the purview of the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and has a specific mandate to rehabilitate and train adolescent offenders and wanderers so that they could be re-integrated in the society.
The maximum period of rehabilitation is three years, or depending on individual circumstances it could be reduced to a minimum of one year.
According to King, students are subjected to full-time schooling in a number of skills training areas including electrical installation, handicraft, joinery, Information Technology, tailoring and garment construction, welding and fabrication, carpentry and masonry which are complemented by English and Mathematics.

While these courses are more tailored for the older students, King said that younger ones are offered remedial sessions in Mathematics and English too. However all students, he noted, are subjected to daily counselling sessions.
“We have one social worker and we are expecting some more, but we also have a pastor who is now working here as a Dorm Supervisor, so he is doing some amount of pastoral counselling.”
Students are also allowed to practice their preferred religion without any interference, he added.
According to information publicised on the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport’s website, NOC offers psycho-social support to youths in order to help them improve their self-esteem and self-worth. The academic programme offered allows them to be exposed to schools within the community.
Moreover, a total of nine students are currently attending the Johanna Cecelia Secondary School, according to King, who revealed, too, that at least one is currently preparing to write the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) Examination this year.
Several Non-Governmental Organisations have also over the years offered students a number of programmes to help improve their level of qualifications to cater to their return to the society.
The most recent undertaking saw a group of 17 students being afforded skills to enter the world of work through an ambitious initiative spearheaded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Skills and Knowledge for Youth Employment (SKYE) Project.
The project, which was done in collaboration with Youth Challenge Guyana (YCG), came to an official end recently, and saw students being certified with the requisite skills for employment or to pursue being entrepreneurs. They were subjected to six weeks of intense training which, according to King, has in fact complemented the existing programmes offered at the facility.
Students are also given the opportunity to participate in football, cricket, track and field, cycling and swimming championships through the Ministry of Education’s sports programmes. The NOC also has the capacity to do non-residential skills training for young people between the ages of 16 and 25 who live in close proximity.
King revealed that students at NOC are also exposed to a number of national activities. At present, he said, preparations are already being made for the upcoming Mashramani celebration.
“We have our float already prepared and we are preparing to do our costumes…We are going as the medium costume band for Region Two. We are taking 60 students…”
Students are afforded a well rounded life, King stressed, thus the focus is not merely on training in a confined environment. In fact, he insisted that students are given a great deal of freedom even as he reiterated that “this is a training institution it is not a prison. Our students get three square meals plus snacks and they gain skills and knowledge to help them along when they leave here.”
According to King, NOC has been home to a number of outstanding characters in the society among them Gospel DJ Kester Deane, popular singer Natural Black and a number of other individuals who have made significant marks in the society since they would have left NOC. “We have got students who would have left here as electricians, some who are teachers today.  So being here gives students a new opportunity to life as the name of the institution says…Our students, if given a chance, can have 24 hours freedom to do anything that is uplifting; they are involved in steel pan, we have a gym and so on.”
NOC, the acting administrator said, has also embraced agriculture, which allows the facility to be self sufficient.  This is especially important since, he noted, it costs a great deal to maintain the facility.  He disclosed that to sustain each child amounts to significant expenditure on a monthly basis.
“We ensure that they are fed, provided with toiletries, and are given health checks; their parents don’t have to contribute in any way,” King asserted.
The operation of the facility is, however, not without challenges. He attributed this to the fact that some students come from varying backgrounds and are often found to be a little more difficult to attend to, hence the need for constant counselling sessions. He noted that while in the past the police have had to intervene, efforts are constantly made to deal with students in the most humane of ways. However, the police are always a call away if the need arises, he emphasised.
Although there have been repeat offenders at the institution, King said that this is only true for one in every 100 students, since according to him “most of them recognise their time at NOC as a chance to grasp opportunities to help improve their lives.”

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