Expect resistance from prison management when implementing reforms

Expect resistance from prison management when implementing reforms – Rohee tells govt.

Mar 09, 2016 News

-Says issue was thorn in past Ministry’s side
By Jarryl Bryan
With a Commission of Inquiry (COI) launched into the circumstances of the Camp Street prison riot last week, a time will come when the Government will have to act on the commission’s recommendations and institute reforms.
However, former Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee has charged the Government to expect resistance, subtle or not, from the uniformed prison management who have to adhere to the reforms. In fact, Rohee said, it is this resistance that plagued efforts to reform the prison service during his tenure.
Rohee expressed this view during a press conference at Freedom House on Monday. According to Rohee, he had once asked for a compilation of all the recommendations that were made by boards of inquiry between 2012 and 2014, while still Home Affairs Minister. This, he noted, was against the background of incidents at New Amsterdam and Mazaruni prisons.
“I had requested that the recommendations from the inquiries be documented so that we could see what the recommendations were and the extent to which they were implemented,” he said. “Because the whole idea with prisons was not only to set up (COIs) or board of inquiries, but at the same time, you have to monitor the implementation to see how it is going.”
He noted that as per the Disciplined Services Commission report, a number of boards including the visiting committee were instituted to modernize the prison service. Explaining the prison visiting committee, he noted that it was made up of civilians and officials attached to every prison location.
Rohee stated that this committee was supposed to go to the prisons every month, meet with the prison administration and even walk around and visit the various cells, to get feedback from the prisoners themselves. With this information, he noted that they were supposed to recommend corrective measures.
Another example Rohee gave was the Inmates Committee, comprising inmates themselves, which he stated was in place at every prison location. This committee was tasked with meeting with the prison administration on a monthly basis, to hash out their grievances.
According to Rohee, however, the big question is whether the prison authorities were encouraging this kind of discourse and allowing these committees to function. He stated that the effectiveness of bodies such as these was stymied because of the uniformed officials, some of whom were opposed to change.
“To maintain a higher degree of stability and sustainability, it was necessary to insert these boards made up of civilians who would dedicate themselves in a focused way to addressing these problems,” he said. “In many instances you would hear members of these boards complaining about frustration, that the management is not giving them the support.”
“That is something that this administration will be faced with as well,” Rohee stated. “(There will be) resistance to change and to civilians offering advice on what is best. This is always the challenge between the civilians and the uniformed.”
Responding to queries about why the Mazaruni prison’s self-sufficiency programme deteriorated, Rohee noted that most of these systems “went awry because of the likes and fancies, the whims and fancies of the management.”
The COI members – former Justice James Patterson, former Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine and human rights activist Merle Mendonca – were sworn in on Monday last. They will be probing the deaths of 17 Camp Street prisoners and injuries to other inmates and prison officers in one of the most deadly prison disturbances in the region in recent memory.
The members will take statements from inmates from the Camp Street prison and even from the other prisons. They will also take statements from the relatives, prison officers and anyone else they deem necessary. It is also expected that the COI will make recommendations with the aim of improving the prison system and infrastructure.

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Expect resistance from prison management when implementing reforms – Rohee tells govt.

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