Prisoner relapse at lowest in 2023 – Director of Prisons

Feb 04, 2024 News

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Kaieteur News – Last year the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) recorded its lowest relapse rate at an astonishing 18%, which is an indication that there were hardly convicted criminal recommitting offences.

This is according to Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliot who said in a statement on the Guyana Prison Service Facebook page on Tuesday that training programmes and other social interventions are key to the relapse figures being at minimum.

The Prison Head said that, “the technical and vocational skills training programmes coupled with the behavioral modification programmes provided to prisoners within the prison and the social services programmes provided within the communities Ministry of Human Services along with the social crime prevention approach adapted by the Guyana Police Force plays a significant role in the reduction from approximately 33%-18% over the period of 2015 to 2023.”

Stressing that recidivism or in simpler terms ‘inmate relapse’ is something the Prison fraternity has been hard at work to reduce in Guyana, it is a clear indication that the rehabilitative programmes are “meeting their intended purpose of preparing prisoners with life skills that will allow them to better reintegrate into society.”

Last year the Prison Service revised and adapted the international best practices formula for measuring recidivism in an effort to “improve data gathering, analysis and focus on evidence-based decisions.” In the end they logged an impressive 18% at the end of 2023.

In comparison to Australia’s average of 45%, the United States of America’s average of 43%, and the Caribbean’s rate of 41% and Latin America 33% as reported by the Inter-American Development Bank, Guyana’s rate of re-imprisoned law offenders is remarkable, Elliot boasted.

He acknowledged the impact “of interventions being made nationally and of course the impact of the service’s strategic developments” for these successes.

Elliot further explained that the general focus of the Prison Service is holistically addressing rehabilitative efforts at the prison and then to promote the reintegration aspect externally. This is so because the GPS realise that stigmatisation as well as discrimination can have dire effects on these reintegrated inmates. Hence, the Prison Service is looking to work with “community partners, private sector, inmates’ family support bases, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Human Services, and the Guyana Police Force to ensure that when these prisoners receive interventions while in prison their new skills and coping mechanisms should prevent them from committing crimes.”

Head of Strategic Management Department, Head of Strategic Management Department Rae-Dawn Corbin-Cameron, said that, “with the support from the Home Affairs Ministry, the Guyana Prison Service is dedicated to upskilling prisoners, with a focus of reducing the chances of them returning to a life of crime post-incarceration. During 2023, 1,520 inmates were exposed to training opportunities by internal and external trainers. Similarly, 435 of the Service’s 498 employees were exposed to training to increase their capacity and ability to manage inmates within a reformative and correctional setting.”

Last December this publication reported that as a result of the rehabilitative measures and programs available the Prison Service saved a whopping $26.8M since as its agriculture programme has proven to be a sustainable and cost-saving venture where inmates produced meat and vegetables.

Currently all of the prison locations, except Camp Street, are engaged in agricultural production. The Prison Service said it is putting strategies in place to increase the quantity of output from farming activities, and management continues to collaborate with specialist agencies to improve farming operations and yields.

The Prison Service noted that for 2023, a total of 1520 inmates across the country have completed training in a number of technical and vocational skills, in keeping with the entity’s aim of promoting a smooth reintegration into society.

In the 2024 national budget a sum of $140.2 million has been set aside to be expended on the rehabilitative training of 1600 inmates in the prison system in Guyana, in preparation for their reintegration into society.

Last year $111.9M was expended to facilitate the training of 1,520 inmates and 348 officers in the areas of agriculture, block making, carpentry and joinery, culinary arts, information technology and prison management among others in an effort to support rehabilitation and social transformation upon exit from the prison system.

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• Head of the Strategic Management Department, inmate, Rae-Dawn Corbin-Cameron, rehabilitation, relapse

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