Guyana has a prison population of close to 1800 inmates and an imprisonment rate which is “extremely” alarming and this problem can be addressed urgently via alternative forms of imprisonment, Director of Prisons Gladwin Samuels said yesterday.
He was speaking during his presentation at the virtual launch of a Regional Comparative report which focuses on imprisonment in the Caribbean for the period of 2016 to 2019.
The report consists of a study which was done to examine survey data collected from over 3500 inmates from six Caribbean countries – The Bahamas (2016), Barbados (2018), Guyana (2017), Jamaica (2018), Suriname (2018) and Trinidad and Tobago (2018).
It reflects on the voice of incarcerated individuals, who are often neglected in policy decisions and offers a diagnosis of the realities and challenges faced by incarcerated individuals and prison managers.
Among the findings and recommendations, the report highlights the “urgent” need for prison reform across the Caribbean.
The recommendations were grouped into four categories: prioritising reducing the prison population; the need for rehabilitation and reintegration programmes to be dramatically expanded and strengthened in Caribbean prisons; post-release services for formerly incarcerated persons; and consideration for the implementation of more comprehensive public safety strategies that balance prevention and control and incorporate the wealth of empirical evidence that is available and that violence is high in most prisons.
According to Samuels, Guyana’s prison population currently stands at 1,741. This includes inmates who are mentally unstable and who were convicted for marijuana-related offences.
As a result he stressed the need for alternative sentencing which can be applied to a large percentage of these inmates.
“There is need to improve. Our failure to act and to act now can result in an increase in the recidivism rate,” Samuels said.
Additionally, the survey found that Guyana’s prison occupancy rate is 129%. Thirty-six percent of these inmates are on remand.
While emphasis is being placed on improving the conditions of prisons across the Caribbean, Samuels argued that consideration should also be given to alternative forms of imprisonment.
The Prison Director warned that the situation can worsen if emphasis is not placed on reducing the prison population and crime prevention.
Overcrowding
The issue of overcrowding in the prison facilities here, particularly the Lusignan prison, has been a longstanding one.
The study has also found that five of the six countries in which the study was carried out have high incarceration rates, surpassing the international average of 145 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants.
“Many of the Caribbean prison facilities are overcrowded, holding more prisoners than what they were designed for and, while occupancy levels vary between countries, some have reached levels that can be described as inhumane or degrading. Overcrowding and poor prison conditions represent a contravention of basic human rights,” the report states.
The report said that the prison populations can be reduced by lessening the time spent in pretrial detention and using imprisonment only for the most serious offences.
It added that persons who committed non-serious offences or those who do not pose a threat to the public can be diverted out of the prison system and into some form of alternative punishment or treatment.
“Given that drug offences account for a notable proportion of offenders, people convicted of crimes related to drug use should be diverted to treatment,” the report said.
It further added that “strong” consideration should also be given to probation and parole and to the release of aged prisoners who no longer pose a threat to the public.
The holding capacity of the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) significantly decreased over the last four years with destruction caused by fires in 2017 and 2020 at the Camp Street and Lusignan prisons, respectively.
Samuels said that while the construction of the new facilities will not solve this issue, it will help to some extent. He noted that prisons are being built since an assessment of the current facilities will highlight the issue of overcrowding and also reveal that the existing structures are “very” aged.
“As such in order for us to be compliant with current human rights and international standards, it is important that we improve on our living conditions of prisons,” Samuels said.
Contraband in prison
As it relates to contraband in prisons, Samuels said this is a serious issue for Guyana.
He explained that over the years, a number of measures were implemented to combat the situation.
However, he said research has shown that the prison staff are among the major culprits who transport these items into the prison.
“What we have found is that the human factor has failed us because our internal assessment would have proven that the officers sometimes work (in synch) to make the transport of these items into the prison very easy,” Samuels said.
“…Our mandate is to provide safe custody and to aid in the rehabilitation of these prisoners, yet across the Caribbean when we do what we refer to as searches, we can see the stories of the discoveries of large contraband,” he added.
Over the years, Samuels said a number of officers were charged either criminally or departmentally for their involvement in the smuggling of contraband into the prison.
In an effort to address this issue, Samuels noted that the government is working to implement some of the most modern technology to aid in keeping contraband items out of the prison.
“….It is my view that if the people under our care, that we are mandated to change, that if we are to aid in their rehabilitation so that when they get out there they do not continue the same lifestyle and we are allowing them to access these items so easily in prison, it means that we are not contributing to behaviour change,” Samuels contended.
Recidivism and rehabilitation
Among the factors which contributed to recidivism were low educational attainment, the use of drugs, family violence, leaving home at an early age and residing in neighbourhoods with criminal gangs.
In working to reduce recidivism, the report suggests that consideration should be given to these variables.
Samuels highlighted that since the research was done, Guyana recidivism rate has reduced from 35% to an average of 28%.
According to Samuels, the current recidivism rate highlights that much more has to be done to address the issue of rehabilitation.
“When we further evaluate the time elapse between the previous encounter, the previous detention and the current detention, it shows that a number of the respondents, almost immediately following their release from prison went back to a life to crime,” Samuels said.
He said this indicates that there was no intervention at all or that those that were made were not “very effective”.
“It therefore shows that reform is very much needed and more aggressive and meaningful programmes need to be offered so as to prepare inmates with the required skillset or educational training so that they can be more effective upon their release back into society,” Samuels said.
