The Guyana Prison Service (GPS) yesterday received tools and equipment worth $11 million to improve the rehabilitation of inmates, while lowering the current recidivism rate.
The items were donated through the Citizen Security Strengthening Programme (CSSP) project and were funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
They are to aid in skills training for various fields, such as agriculture, plumbing, masonry, electrical installation, carpentry, joinery and auto-mechanic repairs.
Speaking at a simple handing over ceremony, which was held at the CSSP head office at Ogle yesterday morning, Minister of Home Affairs Robeson Benn said the items donated will replace equipment and tools which were destroyed in the fires that gutted the Camp Street and Lusignan prisons.
“We have to take the position based on the losses at the Camp Street Prison and at the Lusignan Prison in terms of retooling and bringing in new approaches towards the rehabilitation of persons in the prison system,” he said.
Benn said efforts are still ongoing to ensure that vocational training is done and prisoners are rehabilitated.
“So that when they leave the prison that they would have received the vocational training, that there would be the tools and the equipment for them to work with their trainers and ultimately that they would go back to a useful work rehabilitated,” he said.
Benn further noted that the Ministry is looking to launch a “Fresh Start” programme to prepare and provide prisoners with support when they leave the prison system.
“…When prisoners leave the prison system, they would be provided with tools to start a micro-enterprise, to start a small business, not merely a little hustle but where they will go with tools of a trade for skills which they would have learnt from prison,” he explained.
Timely
Meanwhile, Director of Prison (ag) Nicklon Elliott stressed that the donation came at a timely moment since the GPS is facing constraints in terms of rehabilitation of inmates.
He promised to ensure that the items are cared for and that every prisoner is exposed to the training programmes available within the prison, regardless of the situation.
“…This will boost the training programmes within the prisons and of course it will definitely go a far way. Sir, we will care these tools, we will encourage the prisoners and the trade instructors to also care these tools,” he said.
Elliott said a needs assessment will be carried out to determine how the items will be distributed amongst the various prison facilities across the country.
The CSSP is a project within the Ministry of Home Affairs which is financed through a loan from the IDB.
One of its main objectives is to improve GPS’ effectiveness in reducing offender recidivism at the national level.
Among its recent work, the CSSP has completed a study of alternatives to incarceration and pre-trial detainees with the aim of contributing to the reduction of the remanded prison population and overcrowding
The CSSP has also developing a prisons case management system to support and manage inmates’ progress, improve record keeping and allow for data sharing across agencies.
