A US$8 million project approved by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) will help Guyana ease prison overcrowding by reducing pre-trial detentions and increasing the use of alternative sentencing, among other measures.
A release yesterday from the IDB said that the loan’s objective is to address the high concentrations of prison population in the country, which stands at 256 per 100,000 of national population, well above the world average of 146 per 100,000. The release said that the Guyanese criminal justice system tends to use incarceration as the default sanction.
