Prison Reform

The recent graduation ceremony for some inmates of the Women’s Prison is the greatest cause for hope that we have had in a long time with respect to prison reform. In yesterday’s Sunday Newsday, we carried a report on 20 female prisoners who, while incarcerated, had obtained CXC passes in subjects like English, Principles of Business, Computing, Accounts, as well as certificates in other areas such as Cosmetology, Music, Upholstery, and even Adult Literacy. This is a triumph for the individuals involved, as well as the prison authorities who made it possible.

It is especially so given the largely 19th century conditions which the nation’s prisons operate in. While jail is not supposed to be nice, it is not supposed to be a place where human beings endure daily suffering. Yet the authorities continue to crowd ten to 20 inmates into cells originally built to house no more than three persons; continue to provide a barely subsistent diet; and have few, if any, formal programmes for rehabilitation. Add to this  incidents where prisoners have been killed in suspicious circumstances involving prison guards, where guards themselves have been attacked, where an in-house smuggling trade for drugs and even cell-phones is apparently rampant, and it seems fair to say that the prison system is a wart on the face of the nation.

Against this, however, we have the initiative taken by certain individuals to do what they can to help prisoners break the cycle which landed them behind bars. Prisons Supervisor Esther Knights and her staff at the women’s prison have done well to get persons to come and teach the prisoners, as well as to motivate some of the prisoners themselves to make the effort to study and improve themselves. Resolving to improve oneself is difficult enough for persons in normal circumstances. For individuals whose backgrounds were almost surely not the best, and who have been locked away from the society, making the attempt surely required unusual willpower. But it is unlikely that any willpower would have sufficed without the help of Ms Knights and her team. And even then the task would still have been formidable, since Ms Knights in her address to the graduates remarked on “those who resisted the efforts at reform” and the lack of materials and supplies for studying.

The persons she referred to are no doubt those in higher positions than her. We note that Junior National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds, who has direct responsibility for prison reform, has been supporting attempts at rehabilitation such as the day’s outing for 40  men serving life sentences that was arranged two weeks ago to the Carrera beach where social and sporting activities were organised for the men. Mr Hinds himself accompanied the men from the Maximum Security Prison to the Carrera beach. But many ordinary citizens would also object to any initiatives which seek to help prisoners or improve their lot in life, usually on the basis that this is a waste of their taxpayers’ dollars.

We would argue, however, that it is more productive to spend dollars on such initiatives than in many other areas. If even a few prisoners can be assisted in turning their lives around, this can help change the culture within the prisons. Instead of inmates being better trained for criminal activity when they are released, they will be better trained to help themselves and even others who may not yet have turned to a life of crime. What is taking place in the women’s prison is just a small start, and a similar initiative would be even more difficult to implement in the men’s prison. But the fact that we have persons on both sides of the prison bars willing to make the effort is a very hopeful sign.