–  to see whether recommendations implemented
By Michel Outridge
THE Prison Sentencing Management Board (PSMB) has now been one year in existence, and to mark this anniversary, Captain Gerald Gouveia and a team yesterday visited the Georgetown Prison at Camp Street, where they were able to see whether recommendations made by the PSMB had been implemented. Captain Gouveia, who is the Chairman of the PSMB, said the Board has been tasked with making recommendations to manage sentencing of prisoners across the country in terms of their rehabilitation. He said the PSMB looks at the date when the prisoners enter the corrective facility; the most suitable form of training for the prisoners to undergo, so that they can be successfully reintegrated into, and make a meaningful contribution to, society; and the period of the prisoner’s sentence.
He called for assistance for the programme from stakeholders and the private sector in employing prisoners who had served their time and were reformed; since their serving time in a penal facility should not be seen as ‘the end of their lives’, because they come back to society and attend churches, go to supermarkets, and engage in other activities as ordinary citizens.
Gouveia noted that the PSMB needed to work with all Guyana to reform prisoners, in order to make Guyana a better place.
The PSMB comprises 10 members; and accompanied by its vice Chairman, Director of Prisons Dale Erskine, yesterday, the team recorded its second visit to the Georgetown Prison since its establishment. Over time, the team has visited all the prisons countrywide.
The Home Affairs Ministry launched the Prison Sentencing Management Board (PSMB) within the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) to provide a consultative forum that can address issues relating to training and reintegration of prisoners into society. The board comprises members of the GPS, ministries of Home Affairs and Human Services and Social Security, the private sector, and the Prison Visiting Committee. Members of the board include: Director of Prisons, Dale Erskine; Officer in Charge of the Training, Welfare and Corrections Unit, Fay Clarke; Parole Board member Sylvia Conway; Prison Visiting Committee (PVC) member Ayube Mohammed; Human Services Ministry representative Forbes Munroe; Home Affairs Ministry representative Yojna Hernandez, and private sector representatives Captain Gerald Gouveia and Beni Sankar.