Prison survey… Prison expert highlights need for infrastructure improvement, other issues

Apr 08, 2017 News

The improvement of prison infrastructures were among several issues highlighted yesterday when Professor Ernest Uwazie, Inmate Rehabilitation and Reintegration (R&R) expert met with Minister of Public Security, Khemraj Ramjattan.
Uwazie was hired through the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP) to provide technical and strategic advice to the Project Executing Unit (PEU) with the aim of designing rehabilitation and social reintegration services for prison inmates,
At the press briefing, Uwazie informed the minister that based on his visits to the prison locations; he was able to identify some critical issues that must be addressed in order to achieve successful reintegration of inmates after serving their sentence.
The issues identified were the improvement of the prison infrastructure, giving greater focus to corrective approaches, training to increase educational levels of inmates, employment skills building for inmates and facilitating systematic contact between inmates and their families.
Uwazie was tasked with conducting an assessment of the adequacy of the Guyana Prison Service’s physical infrastructure, and capacities to facilitate the implementation of the R&R programme in compliance with international standards.
He was required to review the inmate management module of the Guyana Prison Service and advising the CSSP on what is required to make it operational and compatible with other justice-chain institutions, supportive of case management, and the generation of data for evidence based decision-making.
He also assisted with developing a handbook on safeguards required to protect the human rights and fundamental freedoms of prison inmates.
Professor Uwazie is a professor of criminal justice at California State University, Sacramento, USA.
He holds a Ph.D. in justice studies, with specialization in dispute resolution and comparative justice and is a graduate of the Harvard Law School Programme on Negotiation & Mediation. He is also a facilitator at the California State Prison in Sacramento.
The strengthening of R&R capabilities of the Guyana Prison Service is a key component of CSSP. Prison overcrowding and inexistence of a comprehensive inmate R&R model and management tools are two prominent issues that that the CSSP is currently addressing.
Prison rehabilitation programmes have shown to improve social and economic reintegration and reduce criminal recidivism.
In seeking to reduce prison overcrowding, the CSSP is also finalizing procurement activities to hire a consultant to conduct a study of alternatives to pre-trial detention to reduce the number of pre-trial detainees in prison.

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