Prison reform, border security among issues UK advisor will handle – UK High Commissioner

–assures consultations will be held

United Kingdom (UK) High Commissioner Greg Quinn has assured that security expert Russel Combe will be providing the Guyana Government with recommendations for a wide range of security issues, including prison and border security reforms.

He was at the time addressing members of the media during a press briefing at his official residence. Combe, a former high-level military officer who arrived in Guyana last month, is here to assist with the UK-funded Security Sector Reform

Action Plan (SSRAP).

Asked whether prison reform would be on the reform plan agenda and who Combe would interface with to get feedback, Commissioner Quinn said that this would encompass professionals and non-professionals alike.

Quinn related that Combe has already been out observing the Police, both in and out Georgetown. Noting that the security expert has also been to prisons, Quinn stated that prison reform will be involved.

“In terms of the needs assessment which recommended the creation of his advisor position, prison reform is part of that. And he’s been to visit prisons. And he will be going more into the hinterland to see both Policing and the prisons, also border issues,” Quinn said.

“So there is nobody that Russel will not talk to in and out of Government and the (Non-Government Organisation) community. And he is casting his net widely in terms of what people, as well as the professionals, actually think is needed and

where people consider the problems to be.”

But while the previous sum allocated had been over US$4 billion, Quinn could not give details regarding the allocation for security reform in Guyana this time around… until there was feedback from Combe regarding his recommendations.

Combe, who will be serving as a Security Advisor to President David Granger for a one-year stint, will be based at the Ministry of the Presidency. Before he makes his recommendations, some of the agencies he is expected to engage are the Guyana Defence Force, the Guyana Prison Service, the Guyana Police Force and the Legal Affairs Ministry.

It is expected, however, that the more perspectives that can be gained will improve the impact of his assessments. In particular, the wider public can offer a useful perspective, through their day to day experiences.

The SSRAP was initiated by the British in 2007. Back then, it was funded by the Department for International Development.

The programme was discontinued two years later over issues of oversight, but President David Granger had requested a re-launch of the programme in 2016. A needs assessment was done by the Olive Group, a British government contractor, last year.

The issue of reform, in particular prison reform, was given renewed emphasis back in May, 2016 when 17 Camp Street prisoners perished in a fire.

A Commission of Inquiry (CoI), costing the treasury approximately $13 million, was subsequently carried out into the inferno. There were expectations that prison reform recommendations would be made.

Indeed, the report recommended the abolition of mandatory minimum sentences. It also recommended decriminalising the possession of small amounts of marijuana for personal use.

There were also recommendations that more policies of alternative sentencing for low-level drug offences be pursued; more proportionality in sentencing; have law enforcement pay more focus on targeting high-level drug traffickers, rather than consumers, small scale farmers and drug mules – all lower-level parts of the drug empire.

Meanwhile, the illegal landing of planes and the clandestine appearances of other forms of transport in Guyana’s interior locations is a matter of concern regarding border security. In 2014, a submarine believed to have origins in Columbia was discovered in the Waini River.

And in September 2016, what later became known as a Colombian aircraft was discovered illegally landed in another interior location. A CoI was also ordered into this. The report was handed over in November, after an extension was granted.