FOLLOWING the demolition of their boxing gym, resulting from the devastating fire at the Camp Street prison, the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) yesterday received a quantity of boxing gear from the Ministry of Social Cohesion’s Department of Sport and the National Sports Commission (NSC).

At the Prison Service’s Sports Bar on Camp and Bent Streets, officials from the Prison Services joined Director of Sport Christopher Jones, as well as Minister of Social Cohesion, Dr George Norton, at the handing-over of the equipment.

“It’s good that the government can take this approach to persons incarcerated in the prison system,” Dr Norton said, adding, “I say this because we have to give the opportunity to those persons to adapt healthier lifestyles and to make better use of their lives. I congratulate the prison service for their recent graduation ceremony where several inmates were successful. The rehabilitation, the reorientation and the changes in values are important.”

“We (Ministry of Social Cohesion) will not be left behind; we know there are many sportsmen out there who were inmates and we would be happy if we could help them to continue in their respective discipline. However there is something special about boxing. It is in boxing that Guyana landed the only Olympic medal, albeit bronze,” noted the minister who also holds the responsibility for sports.

Gladwin Samuels, Director of Prisons, called the donation “timely” and reflected on the Republican Gym’s victory over the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) at the National championships.

According to Samuels, “It would be a shame for the gym to just go down the drain,” as the Prison Director stated his dissatisfaction at seeing inmate Jason ‘AK 47’ Barker unable to defend his Caribbean title this year in St Lucia, after the gym was destroyed by fire.

“I would like to thank Minister Norton and his team for items that have been donated today (Thursday). I also want to urge the public and private sectors to help us. We’ve seen change through boxing. Sometimes you have bad inmates, we put them in the ring and over time we see wholesale changes,” said Samuels.”

Meanwhile, Jones told the gathering of prison officials and media that the NSC stands ready and willing to help the Guyana Prison Service in its efforts to rehabilitate the country’s incarcerated athletes.