Minister of Public Security Khemraj Ramjattan yesterday said that the large number prisoners on remand is costing the nation a fortune annually and alternatives to pre-trial methods must be utilised.
“The current remand population of our prison facilities accounts for 35 percent of all inmates and the cost of providing meals alone for the remand population is estimated at 150 million dollars annually. That’s just for food and there are several additional costs associated with incarceration of these pretrial detainees,” Ramjattan said, according to the Department of Public Information (DPI).
