There is no “magic wand” for reforming prisoners – Benn

…unveils plans for reform of prisoners
Home Affairs Minister Robeson Benn has unveiled major plans to reform the prison system which are aimed at preparing offenders for re-entering society, which according to him, will reduce the recidivism rate.

Apart from massive upgrades to the infrastructure of the country’s penitentiaries, he said that a slew of correctional education programmes will be introduced with the construction of a school for inmates.
He made this announcement while addressing the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) Senior Officers’ Conference where he noted that there continues to be an increase in the prison population.
Benn admitted that while the Government is still “wrestling” with finding the best approaches towards promoting reform in the GPS which is almost 40 years old, the focus is on creating better infrastructure.
He said that the $1.2 billion Lusignan Prison on the East Coast of Demerara which is almost 70 per cent complete will house a school for offenders and other modern facilities.

The facility which will house approximately 1000 inmates is a commitment of the PPP Government following the destruction by fire of sections of the Georgetown and old Lusignan prisons.
Benn said that plans are in place to move the female prison from New Amsterdam, Berbice, to Lusignan, and also make Lusignan the prison headquarters while highlighting that the overall mission is to improve the conditions under which prisoners live.

Improving conditions
“If we want to reduce the recidivism rate, we have to improve the conditions. We cannot reform them [prisoners] unless we improve the conditions, we can’t make things better if we don’t get them doing useful, gainful activities,” the Home Affairs Minister explained.
The GPS currently has an overall recidivism rate of 13 per cent. According to the Minister, the improvements to the prisons are geared at making offenders gentler, relaxed, and more mindful of how they should comport themselves in society with other people.

“If we don’t train them, that when they leave prison, that they can go into gainful useful work and if we don’t strategically and in detail look at all the issues in relation to how we keep them, how we train them and improve those things we would not be making progress…”
He noted that this will be a critical task going forward.

Fresh start
Under the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB)-funded Citizens’ Security and Strengthening Programme (CSSP), Benn pointed out that offenders will be given a “fresh start”.
The CSSP which was launched in 2016 to address crime and violence in Guyana was expected to run for some five years and has since been extended to June of this year. Among other things, the programme was designed to increase the capacity of the Guyana Police Force in criminal investigation practices and crime prevention strategies.
Minister Benn pointed out that through the programme, suitable inmates will be identified, trained, and given tools so that they can return to society and support themselves and their families. Importantly, he said that they will be monitored when they leave prison with the hope that they do not get themselves into issues that would see them returning there.
“The prisoners are a reflection of our society. When we see a prisoner, man or woman, and when we consider the bad things they may have done, those crimes are not simply their crimes, those are our crimes. We have to find a way to move along to the point where we reduce these instances of violence which result in people being incarcerated in large numbers. There is no magic wand to it, but that is what we have to do,” said Benn.
Moreover, he noted, too, that there will be continuous improvement 10-point programmes at every level in the prison service which consists of persons of every race, culture, and segment of society.
“We have to have a continuous improvement perception, a continuous improvement approach to the problem in everything that we do basically, but critically for the prisons. We don’t want to have to go back to the situations where prisoners are lighting up [setting fire to] the place and getting killed and roasting themselves like at Camp Street and burning down the place like at Lusignan. We have to make a big change away from those perceptions and the types of treatment people may have gotten where such things can find themselves manifesting itself in the prisons.”
The Home Affairs Minister announced at the conference that a programme to build social cohesion and prevent violence will soon be launched. “We are speaking in the Ministry of working out a programme where we talk about increasing the peace in Guyana.”

Budget allocation
Budget 2022 pegged at $552.9 billion was presented in the National Assembly on Wednesday and a further $2.3 billion has been allocated towards enhancing prison infrastructure. This year, works will continue on the Lusignan Prison which will be transformed into a modern facility to house both male and female prisoners including a vocational school, an infirmary annex, prison headquarters, and command centre.
Additionally, works are ongoing at Mazaruni Prison on a second prison block. The Government said it will invest in the training of 1400 inmates in areas such as anger management, literacy, and numeracy, tailoring, among others, at a budgeted sum of $88.9 million to reduce recidivism.
In 2021, over $2 billion was expended mainly to complete the first block of the Mazaruni Prison and to commence construction of three prison blocks at the Lusignan Prison. The ultimate aim is to transform Guyana’s penal institution into a correctional facility that reforms the mindsets of inmates to benefit all of society with post-incarceration being a core objective. (G1)