Aimed at the boosting of rehabilitation opportunities for prisoners, Minister of Home Affairs, Robeson Benn last week handed over a quantity of books to the Guyana Prison Service.
Delivering brief remarks, Benn said that the donation will aid in the development and rehabilitation of prisoners. “…The question of rehabilitation of persons in incarceration, the question of turning them out to be better citizens is useful to society, their families and community is an important one,” Benn said. He added that the time in prison offers the incarcerated the opportunity and introspection to read. “I think if they could now have the opportunity, the time and the resources to read, to learn, to understand and to absorb, it will be critical for them to learn of issues, scenarios, interventions and opportunities, so as to avoid making mistakes again,” Benn explained.
He further noted that reading can also provide a platform for prisoners to adapt to new ways-of-living. “A livelihood other than the resort for which they would have been incarcerated for and also to adopt a calmer, a more solid and perhaps relationship outlook in life,” Benn said. The libraries at both the Georgetown and Lusignan Prisons were destroyed by fires. Benn promised that these libraries will be re-established. “We are building new, modern and safer prisons. We want our prisoners to be treated more humanely. Our objective is to rehabilitate them. We are not about social pledges but social rehabilitation,” he said. Director of Prisons (ag), Nicklon Elliott said that the donations of books will strengthen the capacity to expose prisoners to rehabilitation opportunities. “As part of our mandate, we are required to expose prisoners to all the programmes in prison and of course we are limited in terms of our infrastructure and in terms of some programmes,” Elliott said. As such, he said the donation is timely and will not only expose prisoners to reading but will also complement the effort at conflict resolution. The books were handed over during a simple ceremony held at the National Library yesterday afternoon on the occasion of World Literacy Day.
