Prison authorities must be more culturally-sensitive towards inmates – Benn

Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn, reminding that the purpose of the prison system is to rehabilitate criminals, is calling on prison authorities to be more culturally-sensitive towards inmates.

In delivering an address at the opening ceremony of the Guyana Prison Service’s Senior Officers Conference on Thursday, Minister Benn made an urgent call to better the welfare of the more than 1900 prisoners in penitentiaries across the country, and added that, for example, more thoughtfulness should be employed in preparing the diets of these inmates in that meals being provided must be diverse.
Prisoners in Guyana normally receive free meals three times a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner; and can also purchase food from the prison shop.
Using as hypothesis the situation of a person from Aishalton, who is accustomed to eating farine and tasso, who suddenly finds himself/ herself in prison, Benn said that now and again, the prison system should pay for the family of that person to visit them.
“They should be able to get farine and tasso now and again, at least. You have to mix the diet so that they will have a connection with the community, themselves, and their families. Those are the things we have to look at to bring people up,” he said.
He also detailed that prisoners should get exposure to agricultural initiatives that are already progressing. He said these activities empower men in a positive way, showing that they are doing productive things with their time while they are incarcerated.
“And I hope the Commissioner of Police will give the Prison Service an order for (the purchase of) all the chickens I see coming out of the prison system now. and I hope eggs and so on will be coming out, which they could all sell. I think that it enlivens us when we see those things; when we see the men working, doing useful things and learning. Along with the Fresh Start Initiative, we will be able to turn it all into useful activities, where they will earn money and immediately be able to help their families and get a job for themselves,” Benn detailed.
He declared that prisoners involved in these useful activities ongoing in the prison system would better respect themselves, be better able to integrate in society, and be able to support their families. Moreover, the longstanding issue of inmates leaving the prison system and ending up lying around on the pavements would be properly addressed.
Emphasising that rehabilitation is a key component of the prison system, Benn asserted that the objective of incarcerating prisoners is to reform them, so that upon leaving the prison system, they are able contribute meaningfully to the economy.
Highlighting that a number of training programmes are ongoing within the various prisons with the aim of upskilling prisoners, Benn declared that most of the prisoners are men, and this speaks to a bigger societal problem.
“The percentage of women in the prison is only 3%, remarkably so; and it speaks to the problem we have in our country with men: who we are and what we do. Men are the problem, and men we have to work on. You have the job to rehabilitate those 2,200 men who are in the prisons,” Benn charged the prison officers.
There have been several cases of prisoners being abused, and Minister Benn, in pointing this out, reiterated that this is strictly prohibited.
“I keep saying, ‘I don’t want men beaten in the prison! I don’t want men beaten in the prison’. It will only alter their self-respect and so on. We don’t recognize and respect ourselves if we do those things. Cruelty begets cruelty,” he admonished.
Officers found engaging in the act of abusing prisoners must be rehabilitated and/or removed from the Prison Service, Benn has declared.
“They ought to be rehabilitated or removed. Cruelty begets cruelty. When we look at our work, we have to pay careful attention to whether there’s a transformation in the types of crimes, in the persons committing the crimes, and then identify the best results and best approaches,” he cautioned.