Prison rehab getting top priority

REHABILITATION of criminal offenders is a serious priority for the Government, with a commitment given by Prime Minster Patrick Manning that the correctional services will embark on programmes aimed at preparing offenders to re-enter society and avoid crime, said Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Legal Affairs, Phillipa Forde.

Forde made the point while speaking at the opening ceremony of the Legal Aid and Advisory Authority’s two day retreat at Cascadia Hotel, St Anns. Forde talked about Government’s Recidivism project which will attempt to determine the causes of the high level of repeat offenders in prisons and offer insight into the scope for rehabilitation and reform. She also noted that the Youth Deviance project aims to provide data as well as clarify the facts related to the genesis and solution of youth deviance and school violence. She told the retreat, which was facilitated by Anthony Watkins of Odyssey Consulting Limited, that long after the Government had fulfilled these goals, there will still be need for legal aid and advisory services. She reminded them that they were part of a larger programme where the focus is on making “People our priority — a strongly held belief of the current administration which espouses that the development (of our country) is about people and improvement in the quality of their lives and the potential for children to enjoy a higher standard of living than their parents.”

She told members of the Authority that as they serve their clientele they must “always appreciate that among the root causes of crime are factors such as the breakdown in family life, drug abuse, hopelessness, poverty, and the failure of the system of extended families and that of raising children as wholesome communities”. “You are unique and you are the care giver who, above all else, must serve your clientele in a most customer-friendly environment, knowing and forever remembering and understanding that the point at which we offer these services, is a period where they are often facing varying degrees of trauma — an occasion of crisis. “The charge therefore is to understand the delicate nature of your job, being constantly sympathetic and knowing your priority. You do not judge and treat people with prejudice — that is not your role. “You are expected to be full of compassion and that, I assure you, will only come easy if each of us remember the adage which says: ‘There go I but for the grace of God.”