More improvements for Guyana Prison Service – Benn

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn said works were ongoing to remove the undesirous norms that have been brought forward from colonial times and this generation should remain steadfast.

He was at the time speaking during an academic presentation on the presence of mental, neurological, and substance abuse disorders in Guyana’s jails among prison officers and inmates.
The event, which was held at the Herdmanston Lodge, Georgetown, was hosted by the University of Leicester (UOL), England, and the University of Guyana (UG).
Benn noted that the historical realities that linger in the current-day Guyana Prison Service (GPS) should not be surprising. He also noted that although many improvements have been made in the prisons, much more were underway for the GPS.
Meanwhile, the collaboration between UG, UOL, and the GPS was a four-year project that was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) that sought to research and write what the team called a “useable history” on the presence of mental, neurological, and substance abuse disorders in Guyana’s jails among prison officers and inmates.
The team of interdisciplinary researchers was directed by Principal Investigator Professor Clare Anderson from the UOL and local direction was given by Dr Melissa Ifill from UG.
The project, “Mental, Neurological, and Substance Abuse Disorders in Guyana’s Jails, 1825 to the Present Day”, researched the definition, extent, experience, and treatment of mental, neurological, and substance abuse (MNS) disorders in Guyana’s jails – both among inmates and the prison officers who work with them.
The project had two main aims: to model a new interdisciplinary way of working and to produce academic and practical materials on mental health, cognitive impairment, and addiction among prisoners and prison officers. And that it did.
The presenters reflected on the historical, social, and cultural elements of prisons and proved true the hypothesis that the existence of MNS disorders could be traced back to the British colonial period, and they could not be disconnected from the country’s history as a sugar colony that employed and controlled Indigenous people, enslaved Africans and indentured Indian labourers.
During their conclusion, the presenters summarised four focused recommendations to support the revolutionisation of the GPS into a corrective and positively reformative environment for both officers and inmates.
Only last year, Prisons Director Nickolas Elliot announced that some rogue prison officers were contributing to a worrying trend of contraband smuggling into Guyana’s penal institutions. Scores of prison officers were also sacked for smuggling drugs along with contraband into the prisons.
As such, the Director said the officers, along with visitors and prisoners, would be closely monitored to eradicate this issue. (G9)