Government’s effort very commendable in redeeming prisoners

Jul 02, 2022 Letters

Dear Editor,

Rehabilitation of inmates from the Lusignan and Mazaruni prisons is indeed great news for all Guyana. I believe in second chances since people have it within themselves to change for the better as they learn from their mistakes. The news is that some 140 inmates from these two prisons graduated, after completing training in various programmes, namely in the areas of agriculture, tailoring, animal husbandry, apiary culture, carpentry, joinery, literacy, art and craft, leather craft, and culinary arts. As we all know, the venture was all about preparing the inmates for reintegration into society. In fact, this is precisely what Director of Prions, Nicklon Elliot, said when the graduation exercise was held.
He noted that “Effective rehabilitation programmes within the prisons are important. Not only do they teach inmates a sense of self-worth, but they can also help inmates acquire new skills that can be applied to starting a new life following their release from prison and providing purposeful life goals.”
My mind goes back to Budget 2022, as this ongoing be revisited will support my take as the Government of Guyana did earmark the sum of $88.9M to train prison inmates in areas such as anger management, literacy and numeracy, and tailoring among others, in an effort to reduce recidivism. I recall Dr. Ashni Singh, when he presented to the National Assembly, the People’s Progressive Party Civics’ landmark $552.9B budget, stating that “Budget 2022 is expected to launch the most rapid period of transformation and modernisation ever witnessed in the country’s history, and for sure, the prison system must be accommodated.”
I recall also the call came from Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn, who did mention that even then that the government was already investing heavily in the prison system to reduce. He had cited the reconstructing of the Lusignan prison, in addition to providing the necessary training for inmates and prison officers. His striking pronouncement was that “If we want to reduce recidivism rate at entry or overall, 13 per cent overall and nine per cent for new intakes, we have to improve the conditions. We cannot reform them unless we improve their conditions. We cannot make things better if we do not get them doing useful, gainful activities.” So now, what we are seeing as Guyanese, is simply a fruition of a commitment made in terms of prisoners’ preparation for life after release.
Let me inform the public, that a number of studies in the field of personality psychology have found that when there is forced confinement, habits of thought, behaviour and emotion do change in significant and consequential ways-especially in response to the different roles that we adopt as we go through life. It is almost inevitable then that time spent as a prisoner, in a highly structured yet socially threatening environment, is bound to lead to significant personality changes. And this is where rehabilitation and re-integration kick in. This must be used positively, and this graduation exercise is testimony to that positive capitalisation.
As we all know, one of the tasks of prison management is supposed to be using the time of incarcerated persons to provide them with the necessary skills to increase their chances of finding work, accommodation and establish support mechanisms that they can use in the community once they are released. I guess in a few years, we will see rewards of this kind of input. Already something is in the offing as there are an additional 172 currently in the final weeks of some classes.
I close by reminding readers that in 2021 “Adopted at the conclusion of the 13th United Nations Congress on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, the Doha Declaration highlights the importance of supporting measures to support the rehabilitation and social reintegration of prisoners into the community.” The trend that Guyana is a part of is that of embracing the concept of rehabilitation in winning ground over that of punishment when dealing with prisoners. Penitentiaries around the globe are now striving to effect changes by providing inmates with opportunities during their sentence, so that they can more easily be reintegrated into society and become, once again, active and fulfilled members of their communities.
Yours truly,
H. Singh.

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