(Trinidad Guardian) Canada’s Commissioner of Corrections, Don Head, has expressed strong support for Government’s plans to introduce conjugal visits at T&T’s prisons. Speaking in a telephone interview yesterday at the end of a visit to prison facilities in this country, Head said he believed the system would work in local prisons. He said it would assist in the process of social reintegration. Using his home country as an example, Head noted that conjugal visits were referred to as private family visits. He added: “Over the last 20 years we have had very specific rules with offenders in terms of which prisoners can participate in private family visits.
“We ensure there is proper infrastructure, ensure that people coming into the prisons are well screened and ensure there is no risk to staff,” he said. Head said inmates were evaluated to ensure they posed no violent risk to their families during the visits. Asked if he believed the initiative would work efficiently and effectively in T&T, Head said: “I think it can work.The T&T Government would have to define the rules that are best suited for them.”
Research, he said, indicated conjugal visits played a fundamental role in developing healthy families. He added: “In Canada private family visits are not just for parents but also for children to come in and the visits can last up to 72 hours or it could be shorter than that. “After conducting risk assessments the inmate would then have to apply for the visit so that they would use the facility because not everyone would be able to use the facility at the same time,” he said. During his visit to T&T, Head toured the Maximum Security, Golden Grove and the Women’s Prisons. “From my quick observations I find the T&T Prisons Service has a very clear and strong vision of what they want to do in order to obtain a modern and effective correctional service,” he said.
He said the Canadian Government was working closely with the Government of T&T to develop a memorandum of association to share views. “We’re looking at information-sharing, staff exchanges and specific areas relating to delivery of correctional programmes, some of which would be aimed at prisons security in dealing with gangs in prisons, weapons and drug trafficking,” he added. While he said he believed T&T was in a leadership position, there were some issues which needed to be addressed, such as improving infrastructure at local prisons. He said: “The prisons authorities have a very good understanding of the challenges, including the aging of infrastructure.
“And the question of infrastructure creates significant challenges and the authorities will have to try to find ways of dealing with such shortcomings in a meaningful way.” Asked whether he thought T&T’s prisons population was high, Head said the population of a prison was a reflection of the overall justice system.