We need to treat prison officers and inmates more humanely

Jul 20, 2017 Letters

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Dear Editor,
The nation has experienced great trauma within the last 16 months as we observed the travails of the Guyana Prison Service. This service is the outside child of government and the step sibling of the other members of the Joint Services. When we look at the salaries and conditions of employment of its officers and ranks vis a vis the other services, we see a clear pattern of neglect.
Most of the officers of the other services regularly attend the standard officer’s courses of the GDF. In addition many are sent on overseas training programs. Prison officers are lucky to be able to attend conferences abroad. In 1972/73 I had the opportunity of working closely with then Director of Prisons, Mr Davis, his deputy Mr France and Senior Supt. of Prisons, Mr Richards. They had invited me to work along for the establishment of a program geared to bring significant change to the prison system.
This resulted in the setting up of a technical/vocational school at the Mazaruni Prisons; the upgrading of technically trained officers to technical instructors; the redesigning of the Camp Street Prisons Trade Shop; the setting up of an industrial/commercial entity to market products made in the prisons. In those days the Mazaruni Prisons had the largest piggery in the Caribbean and both Lusignan and the Mazaruni Prisons had several Holstein type cows that produced milk for the system and adjoining government institutions. The school was a first for the Black Commonwealth.
We were able to set up a system where when the officers and men were let out on hire on external projects, the Service took two thirds of the proceeds and one third went to the inmates who had laboured. I proposed that inmates be placed to work on mainly government projects whether they were drainage or road projects. Inmates would then have a sizeable amount of money on their discharge. Additionally some of this money could have been used to help their families on the outside and thus remove the strain from public assistance. They also had the opportunity to start a small business.
The Camp Street Trade Shop was modernised and new equipment to make chainlink fencing and barbwire were installed. The manufacture of these products predated the production of similar products from a famous local enterprise. I must note here that with the introduction of these measures the prisons settled down and disorder was at a minimum. However these new measures fell down some years later as the effects of the OPEC oil crisis and economic stringencies took their toll.
The promised salary scale improvements for officers who maintained the training programs were not put in place and officers became disgruntled. On a personal note I too suffered. The recommended honorarium and gold medal were denied since my employer, Ministry of Labour and the Public Service Commission felt that I was already compensated by employment in the system.
Fast forward to 2008/09. I was invited to a committee that was set up by Director Mr Erksine. This committee comprised educators and others who made valueable inputs towards the operations of the prisons. The coordinator for this committee was a Supt. Clarke who was appreciative of our combined efforts. This was the time when inmates were sent up for CXC exams and many of them passed creditably.
My task was to help in the rehabilitation of the Camp Street Trade Shop; the crafting of a program for the instituting of a prison industrial complex. These matters were treated in a number of concept papers which I presented. I proposed fees for a consultancy and assistance to put the program in place. The fees proposed did not find favour with the subject minister and I demitted the committee.
It was proposed that the Service request 500 acres of land aback of Lusignan This land would be used for the erection of a new maximum security prison; the cultivation of rice and other crops; the erection of modern workshop facilities to cater for the maintenance of the prison built infrastructure; furniture manufacture; block making entity; and the instruction of inmates in various crafts. As with the earlier Mazaruni facility no welding was to be taught at the prisons. A secretariat comprising senior officers of the Service would have been responsible for the oversight of the program. Officers with technical knowledge would have been favoured for inclusion in the program.
I believe that the foregoing would show that worthy attempts were made to make life easier for both the officers and inmates of the prison system. However one will find that persons can only respond according to their levels and extent of competence. What we need is a paradigm shift in our thinking of the prison system in this country. The persons to do same exist. We need to look a little deeper into things and perhaps then the solutions would be found. We need to treat our officers and inmates more humanely. Government needs to include persons from the society when solutions for the problems in the penal system are being sought.
Cyril Walker

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