The public has tended to see prisons primarily as places of retributive justice and as such they consider inmates should find the incarceration experience both disagreeable and austere. In addition, the assumption is that if conditions are harsh then prisoners when released will not be tempted to reoffend. As an extension of this citizens are generally opposed to their taxes being expended on prison improvement, and this applies whether a country is developed or underdeveloped.
In a general sense many governments in democracies are ahead of their voters in terms of their thinking on prisons. They would consider the loss of freedom for someone sentenced to jail as satisfying the punishment element of justice, but beyond that they think that the prison experience should focus on education, training and rehabilitation. Contrary to popular supposition it is these which reduce the likelihood of recidivism, not the severity of the conditions while inside. Someone who is discharged from jail is far less likely to return to a life of crime if he has a job to go to.
Last month the Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales told the BBC that it was “vital that prisons become places of real purpose,” and that there was a “proper” debate over what they were trying to achieve, what happened to inmates when they were locked up, and what the public wanted prisoners to be like when they emerged. He was calling, he said, “for a fundamental shift in the way that prisons are organised and run so that they become first and foremost places of rehabilitation and education.”
The UK has a major problem with overcrowding in jails as well as antiquated buildings which are not fit for purpose. In addition, there is a shortage of prison staff. The Inspector alluded to the fact that prisons were failing to reduce the risk of reoffending, and that many inmates were failing to learn to read. There were others, he said, who took courses which would not help them find employment when they were discharged, while the high availability of narcotics in some prisons impeded rehabilitation efforts.
The British government has instituted a new Prisoner Education Service, designed to “improve prisoners’ literacy and numeracy,” as well as “business-led Employment Advisory Boards [to] ensure they develop skills employers need, and Prison Employment Leads [to] match them to jobs on release.” It will take time, however, to discover the kind of results this initiative produces.
Much of what applies in the UK also applies here. We have a major problem with overcrowding in our jails, some of which derives from the number of people on remand owing to the shortage of judges and magistrates to hear cases, some of it because of sentencing practices and some of it – an unknown percentage – because of recidivism. While the first two do not lie within the remit of the prison system, the reoffending problem is something it can address.
Like the UK too, there is a serious shortage of prison officers here, a problem which is only likely to find resolution if there were to be some meaningful increase in pay, although at Mazaruni, for example, some improvement in the physical conditions for staff is under way. However, the arrest of four officers, one of them very senior, in connection with ‘Smallie’s’ escape from Mazaruni last year should have been a sobering thought for the authorities. As it is, staff shortages may well limit the range of training course options for inmates which are possible.
And drugs pervade our penal institutions here too. Even prison officers have been caught bringing narcotics into our jails – one was arrested last month, for example – while periodically outsiders are caught trying to smuggle drugs in. One suspects that this is just the tip of the iceberg. But as is recognised in England, the widespread use of drugs in our correctional institutions militates against rehabilitation efforts. Getting to grips with the narcotics issue will in the first instance probably require far more staff.
Guyana has been reconstructing some of its prison facilities, although this was partly forced upon it by the actions of prisoners themselves, who either burned down buildings as in the case of the Lusignan dorm, the Camp Street jail and Mazaruni at a much earlier stage, or because they came to represent a security threat owing to the frequent escapes, as happened more recently at Lusignan. In addition of course, there was the extreme overcrowding, which caused the government to look at the system as a whole.
There has also, however, been a commitment on the part of the administration to rehabilitation and skills development, so inmates would have the opportunity to be reintegrated into the society as well as prevent reoffending. More than two years ago the Guyana Prison Service received tools and equipment worth $11 million funded by the IDB to aid in the development of skills in fields such as agriculture, plumbing, masonry, electrical installation, carpentry, joinery and auto-mechanic repairs. They were to replace tools destroyed in the Camp Street and Lusignan fires, Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn said.
He went on to explain: “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.”
Three questions arise from this, the first of which relates to teachers: who are they? With a shortage of staff in the education system, where are the teachers for the prisons coming from?
The second one relates to literacy: anyone wishing to start a micro-enterprise must be literate and numerate at a basic level. The English recognise this, because under their Prisoner Education Service they are investing more funds to improve reading and writing skills. One suspects that literacy and numeracy levels in our jails are probably lower than they are in England’s. But for anyone to operate in the modern world they need to be fairly literate and numerate. Ideally too they should have basic computer skills, and while the GPS has launched an IT programme at Mazaruni, it will only benefit 20 inmates. Even if the money were provided for something more ambitious, it would require that inmates were functionally literate first. Rehabilitation to be successful will mostly require a basic education in addition to a skill.
The third question relates to what happens to people released from jail. If they have a skill but no help, then rehabilitation efforts in the jail might come to naught. But where that is concerned Minister Benn said towards the end of last year that his ministry was looking to launch a ‘Fresh Start’ programme to prepare and provide prisoners with support when they leave the prison system. It will be sorely needed, because unlike England, this is a very small society, and it is easy for former inmates to take up again with criminal associates they knew before.
On the last day of the year we reported on the GPS’s ‘Grow More’ campaign, involving an expansion of the agricultural drive. In terms of output it was clearly a success since it had proved to be a cost-saving venture, with the total value of crops and meat harvested amounting to $26,838,650. Clearly a lot of inmates learned some agricultural skills, although whether those would benefit all of them after release if they were city-bred and had no access to land is perhaps questionable.
Where the public at large is concerned, maybe the Minister needs to re-emphasise the point to them from time to time that rehabilitation reduces recidivism, and a reduction in recidivism will reduce the crime rate.
