The Guyana Prison Service Poultry Project  at the New Amsterdam Prison is being regarded as a timely initiative which gives scope for entrepreneurship  while providing training for inmates.

Established in 2007, the project was launched by the Prison Service in collaboration with Food For The Poor (Guyana) which initially contributed $3.3M to the construction of a chicken coop and other facilities for chicken rearing, with   a first batch of 1,000 broiler chicks, the NGO said in a press release.

Additionally,  the release said,  it is hoped that the project  will expand to the extent that it can supply not only the Guyana Prison Service but the Georgetown Public Hospital, among other such entities.

Superintendent of Prisons, Second–in-Charge of the New Amsterdam Prison, Kevin  Browne  in assessing the project said: ”Well I think the project is a good initiative.  It gives a scope for entrepreneurship  and building  an industry within the (Guyana) Prison Service   at the New Amsterdam Prison, in particular, where it is based.  It also provides training opportunities to inmates and most importantly it provides an on-the-spot source of dietary supply.”

And  according to Assistant Prison Officer Yeoland Richards who has responsibility for chicken rearing and farming,  the mortality rate of the meat birds is generally under 10 percent and the average live bird after six weeks can weigh up to six pounds.  He said also that the facilities include a large pen that can comfortably accommodate the rearing of 3,000 meat birds at once, a plucking machine, water facilities, abattoir  and  feed shed, among others.

All inmates working on the project are given a  stipend every batch and the chickens  are used  in helping to meet the dietary needs of inmates countrywide, the release stated.

Meanwhile, Food For The Poor is aiming to use such an initiative to make inmates appreciative  of an alternative economic activity to other endeavours they may intend to pursue  after they would have served their sentences.