FOR some time now, a concept that has been bubbling around locally is alternative sentencing. It aligns with the wider, global effort of promoting this, perhaps due to the dismantling of archaic laws and the greater focus on people’s rights.

This past week it was announced that the government would be exploring the possibility of establishing a Drug Treatment Court, as part of efforts to foster alternative sentencing in Guyana, to mitigate the overcrowding issue in the local prisons.
Just recently, a 20-year-old student of the School of the Nations was sentenced to three years imprisonment for the possession of Ecstacy pills. Stemming from this, an online petition was launched in an attempt to reduce the severity of his punishment. Before that, there was national outcry after a father was sent to jail for possessing a small amount of marijuana.

Guyana’s laws provide for a mandatory three-year jail sentence for the possession of small amounts of marijuana which has contributed to an overcrowding of the country’s prisons- that was especially spotlighted during the 2017 Camp Street fire.
Under the laws of Guyana, possession of certain quantities of these substances is punishable. And laws are maintained by society just so that there wouldn’t be a breakdown in the society’s values, i.e. anomie.
Effectively what this drug treatment court would do is, look at these offences through a different set of lenses, due to cognisance that crime and deviance cannot be covered with one paintbrush- it calls for more individuality or specificity sometimes.

Youth violence in the Caribbean and other oppressed communities, like the ‘ghettos’ in the United States or in Latin American countries, can be caused by a strain felt to meet societal expectations.
Look at the social setting in Guyana, for example. There is pressure on children to perform well academically from an early age. This is amplified around ‘Common Entrance’ time (which by the way is just a few weeks away) when many parents want their children to get into the high ranked secondary institutions.
I won’t be the judge to say that this pressure is good or bad, but I’d just like to acknowledge that it exists- and it exists because societies like ours have long since been characterised by an emphasis on the achieved system of social mobility. And education has perhaps been the main avenue of achieving a higher status in contemporary society.

But looking at this further, I would always reflect on Robert Merton’s strain theory. The strain theory seeks to highlight that there are societal goals (e.g. owning a house and a car, as part of a comfortable life) that can be achieved through acceptable/ innovative ways (e.g. working diligently) or socially unapproved/ unconventional ways (fraud, forgery, etc). One can also opt to reject both the goals and either avenue of achieving them. The theory doesn’t explain every single instance of deviance, but it does allow for an understanding of a possible factor.
What this theory lends credence to, however, is that the environment of a person and their lived experiences ultimately shapes who they are and what they do. If a strain is present, it shapes how the person will choose to respond to it.

In announcing the new court, the Public Security Minister posited that imprisonment does not rehabilitate drug users, and was quoted as saying that instead “they graduate into bigger things.”

“They get to learn the tricks of the trade while serving their three years for possession of narcotics and they come out back [with] a higher degree of criminality or at least a certain knowledge of what best they can do now…without getting caught,” he said.
This was emphasised in Edwin Sutherland’s theory of Differential Association- again, your environment and lived experiences shape you.
At the same time, while I empathise with persons and I do believe that sentences like these are too harsh, I know there are elements that take advantage of persons feeling the strain and exacerbate the situation.

This past week, the Guyana Chronicle reported that a drug ring was exposed. This ring, allegedly, is run by a young man who has drawn teenagers into his ‘business’
It could be that the man in charge also felt a strain and resorted to the drug ring to make extra money, but that is yet to be unearthed. As is, it has been purported that he took advantage of young students- and in my books that is unacceptable.
I see the merits in this drug treatment court and I do hope that it is realised sooner than later. Valuable human capital is diminished because of the existing systems and that is human capital Guyana cannot afford to let go of.