Strategic Prison Reform plan must be fully implemented- Rohee

Mar 08, 2016 News

The People’s Progressive Party (PPP) has called for the Government to return to the Strategic Prison Reform

Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan

plan it had initiated. The party is of the view that what the administration is considering is inadequate and without the full implementation of the strategic plan, prison riots could reoccur.
This was communicated by PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee, during a press conference yesterday. He said that the plan was aimed at building on what was started. There was a sentence management, recruitment, training and agriculture development board, as well as the Prisons’ Visiting Committees and the Cecil Kilkenny Training College at Lusignan.
“To prevent any re-occurrence of this type (prison riots) the Granger coalition administration must pick up from where the PPP/C left off,” Rohee, a former Home Affairs Minister, emphasized. “The blueprint is there for them to examine carefully and to press ahead with implementation of the Strategic Plan for Prison reform.”
“Above all (was) the decision to transform the Lusignan prison into a model correctional facility particularly for young, first offenders to prevent contamination,” Rohee continued. “These reforms were eventually absorbed into the total overall Strategic Plan to transform the Guyana prisons into correctional institutions.”
Rohee also expressed worry at what he called “the informal, illegal networking among prisoners at the various locations.” He noted that this was a serious threat, posing a security risk to the country as a whole if these connections were used in a coordinated manner at the same time.
Overcrowding
Rohee was, however, asked whether the reform plan did not take into account addressing overcrowding.

PPP General Secretary, Clement Rohee

The former Home Affairs Minister stated that it did and while plans for constructing a prison at Timehri were abandoned, there were also plans for an extension of the Mazaruni prison.
“Money was allocated for (the extension),” he responded. “(But) the reform plan is a very expensive plan. Each stage of the plan was costly and could not be funded at the same time. We had to phase the implementation, because other ministries are competing for resources.”
He, however, noted other avenues that were attempted in the past ‘for dealing with overcrowding. One example he gave was the work of the sentencing management board, which looked at convicted prisoner’s skills and determined avenues to have them use their skills productively. He also pointed to sentencing to community services as another way of managing the prison population.
“But the magistracy did not have any uniformity in their sentencing policies in respect to sentencing individuals to community service,” Rohee said. “That was one way to deal with overcrowding, instead of sentencing people to prison for minor offences.”
Ramjattan must go
Meanwhile, Rohee surprisingly issued calls for the dismissal of Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan. This comes despite the fact that Rohee was once under fire for his handling of the security sector after several police atrocities and deadly protests, but refused to step down. A no confidence motion was even filed against Rohee.
Rohee based his calls for Ramjattan’s head on the fact that while he was once blamed for the deaths of the three Linden protestors, “lying at the feet of Ramjattan and indeed the Granger administration are 17, not three bodies.”
The question was posed how he could justify his call for Ramjattan’s head when the Government only recently came into power. Rohee said, “The king is dead. Long live the king.” He expressed the opinion that the Government inherited the good and the bad and it was its responsibility to fix it.
“It doesn’t matter how long they’ve been there,” Rohee said. “They’ve been saying since (they were) in the opposition that they had all the answers.”
In response to Rohee’s calls, however, Ramjattan yesterday dismissed them as attempts to gain cheap political points. He made it clear that if Rohee felt thus, he could move a no confidence motion against him, as the then A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and Alliance for Change (AFC) opposition once did.
“I have the confidence of the President, Cabinet and National Assembly.” Ramjattan expressed.
Prison reform came into sharp focus with the deaths of 17 inmates from the Camp Street prison in a fiery blaze. A Commission of Inquiry has since been launched, which will not only examine the events of the day, but will make recommendations for prison reform.