Caribbean prison services working on re-integration of prisoners
DIRECTOR of Prisons Dale Erskine, reported last week  that a rehabilitation committee has been established, locally, to ensure prisoners are re-integrated into society. He said it resulted from a meeting, earlier this year, with members of the Guyana,The Cayman Islands and Jamaica prison services.
Reporting on the development, Erskine told reporters the move was initiated during a visit by their colleagues from The Cayman Islands and Jamaica, who were here to engage members of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) in camaraderie, games and collaboration, as well as to foster cooperation.
Erskine said, apart from collaboration, they had some games and were able to forge good links in cricket and took the visiting delegation to visit Arrowpoint Resort, with which they were pleased and indicated their anxiety to return.
He said their overseas counterparts also made a donation to the GPS Library.
Erskine said they were engaged in training discussions, during which the focus was on opportunities and some of the weaknesses seen in the systems and how best to take the  prison services in the Caribbean to another level.
He said: “Our main focus in all these discussions was under the Prison Association of the Caribbean, which is striving to make excellence in the prison services. One of our main foci is to ensure that our prisons are secure and see how our prisoners return to society as citizens.”
Erskine disclosed that their talks centred on having prisoners properly  re-integrated into society, which is very critical.
“So we see how best we can do this in terms of sharing ideas and I think that, generally, we are successful in securing our prisons.We  are not getting the right results as  regards to our prisoners returning to society as responsible citizens,” according to him.
Erskine said they are looking at collaboration with the community and other stakeholders, since it does not only involve the GPS but, rather, requires a collective effort.
“We are striving to have  a lot of bridges crossed, much more interaction with members of the public to maintain a level of cooperation with GPS; prison service development; private sector and non-governmental organisations (NGOs),  to ensure our prisoners have a better opportunity in being successful in returning to society,” he explained.