Prisons Ag Supt calls on citizens to nurture each other

Corraspe spoke to the theme of “Nurturing Boys, forming men for the Kingdom of Heaven” at the Trinity Cathedral’s fifteenth Sunday of Pentecost: Independence Celebration, Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain.

To the congregation, many dressed in the colours of the country’s national flag, Corraspe said nurturing and developing men, boys and girls needed to go beyond one’s home. In the introductory part of his address, Corrapse referenced the murder of nine-yearold Cyon Paul and the murder of two-year-old, Demario Whyte in Kingston, Jamaica. He added there was much taking place within the national landscape with respect to juvenile delinquency.

He added that when God was turned away human beings were left to their own “reprobate minds” these sort of things occurred. He prefaced this statement by quoting from the Bible’s book of Romans.

As a member of the Prison Service for the past 27 years, he said often the service was called upon to treat with young men and women who did not know right from wrong. Despite the growth of the country’s national security budget over the last ten years, there has been an equal increase in crime particularly murders, he said.

“We have a view in this country to throw money at a problem is to solve it,” he said.

Corraspe noted that solving the problem of juvenile delinquency in the society was rather about a value, a commitment to what is right.

“There is only so much we can do in the Prisons, Police or the Defense Force, there is only so much we can do to nurturing. We can treat with our family affairs and do interventions as they come through the system. But what about all of us as a people? “Because of the problems that we have and we want to nurture men and women, boys and girls to be ready for the Kingdom of God,” he said.

He said the time came for citizens to pay greater attention to each other. Paying attention to one’s household would not assist the country.

The time had come, he said, for people to go out there and visit hospitals, be of service to the young men at the Youth Training Centre (YTC).

Corraspe ended by saying, “If we nurture each other, we will nurture the country we want it to become.”