Dear Editor,
I was very heartened to learn that moves are afoot to improve prison conditions in Guyana. I ask that we use this opportunity to re-examine the whole subject of crime and punishment, and penal reform.
Some twenty years ago I was part of a three-man team that was tasked by the then Minister of Home Affairs to examine and report on the conditions at the Camp Street prison. That was an experience I will never forget. I remember thinking that we kept our dogs in better conditions. Years after, little changed, with one prisoner-protest after another. The extent of consideration for the plight of these unfortunates was revealed in the callous remark by a subsequent minister, that they shouldn’t expect Hilton Hotel conditions.
As we seek to redefine this question of justice and incarceration, we first need to redefine ourselves as human beings. We need to find within ourselves a new social and spiritual consciousness. We ought to consider reconciliation as an alternative to revenge, humanity before humiliation, redemption rather than rejection. And instead of laws through which we demand our pound of flesh, we should find it in ourselves to give one ounce of human kindness.
As the late Fr. Morrison put it, “We should condemn the sin, not the sinner.”
Yours faithfully,
Clairmont Lye
