The Welfare and Corrections Department of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) in keeping with its mandate to rehabilitate inmates launched its information technology (IT) programme at the Mazaruni Prison yesterday.
Currently 20 inmates are benefitting from the programme.
According to a GPS release, the opportunity was made possible through funds received from the Inter-American Development Bank and the Ministry of Legal Affairs; this allowed all prison locations to be equipped with computer labs.
The release also stated that the programme is three months long and inmates are expected to be computer literate upon its completion. The initiative is designed to ensure that inmates will no longer be at a disadvantage in the IT sector when their sentences are complete.
Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliot, stated in his remarks that the initiative comes at a time when technology is becoming more valuable to society. He posited that “the labs will allow inmates to access online training programmes, videos and foreign language programmes.”
Meanwhile, Officer-in-Charge of Prisoners Welfare and Corrections, Marielle Bristol-Grant, in her comments stated that the inmates welcomed the initiative and there is already a waiting list of interested inmates wishing to benefit from the class. She too pointed out that the programme will allow inmates to function in a technological society upon release.
