WITHOUT being privy to statistics on the number of women to men now serving custodial sentences in the penal system of Guyana, it would be safe to conclude that more men offend the law, are caught and prosecuted, and are therefore jailed.

This observation relates to Guyana, where it is traditional for men to be seen as the perpetrators of the more serious crimes, such as murder and other felonies. But this does not infer that such criminal extremities are at times not committed by females. The past fifty years would have recorded a number of women facing the capital offence, being sentenced to death, although eventually not being made to pay the penalty, because of commutation to life imprisonment. Memory will recall one of such a categorised female, eventually dying in prison, sometime in the 1990s.

In fact, if records are correct, Guyana may have had only about two to three females who were executed for murder, with the last recorded instance being in the very late 1940s.
But the laws are there, and are applicable with the same judicial sanction on either male or female, but are known to vary in instances where there may be mitigating circumstances. There can be no denying that women going to prison, for whatever reason, impacts on society in ways that do have far-reaching consequences; since many of them are mothers, it means that their children, often very young or teenagers, and at school, will suffer emotional trauma. It is known that the male child may vent his anguish by becoming involved in petty crimes; while the female child often becomes pregnant. This has resulted in the dismemberment of many a family facing the challenge of an absent mother who is a guest of the state.

The Caribbean experience, and Guyana’s have been the factual example of women being the traditional bedrock of the home, becoming the glue that keeps the family together. And since the reasons for this extant sociological fact of regional and national life are very well known, they will not detain us, except to say that women are now the acknowledged and proven representatives of their families, even in instances where the father may be present.

It explains why President David Granger declared that women should be at home with their families, when he announced that there would be the granting of pardon to women in prison for non-violent petty offences. He was absolutely accurate in underlining such a reason, as there were the very discernible effects of the single mother’s absence from her family, particularly during such prolonged periods as imprisonment, and the negative toll such exacted on her household.

For whatever reasons, there are women in prison, and they must be afforded the opportunities during their incarceration, that will prepare them in every way for eventual release and reintegration into society. However, given the emotional trauma that most women do suffer in such an unfortunate situation, coupled with the psychological apprehension of returning to society, a careful regime of mental preparation should be considered, even for males too. In this regard, we see Minister Simona Broomes visit to the women inmates at the New Amsterdam penitentiary on the occasion of the just observed International Women’s Day, as an example of the kind of heartened encouragement that such women in prison do need.

Speaking about the power of transformation, she encouraged “You can do it! None of you are failures”. In this regard, she is right, since many persons, inclusive of females, are in custody because of circumstances which may have been beyond their control. We do subscribe to the inalienable fact that there is worth in everyone, inclusive of prisoners, whether male or female. It is a question of the “need to understand self -value, so that you can contribute meaningfully to yourself, family and country”, according to the Director of Prisons, Gladwyn Samuels, who also spoke to the gathering on International Women’s Day.