Link prisoner rehab with cut in jail time

PRISONS Commissioner Gerard Wilson said the rehabilitation of inmates can be encouraged by linking it to the cut in sentence they now routinely enjoy. He spoke at a Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Social Services meeting on Wednesday chaired successively by Paul Richards and Esmond Forde which examined how well the system of rehabilitation is working.

The committee heard that rehabilitation works well within prisons, but ex-inmates can stray into trouble on the outside unless first participating in a pre-release programme.

Saying inmates now get a remission of one-third of their sentences, Wilson said he was concerned that pre-release programmes to rehabilitate inmates are merely voluntary.

JSC member Khadijah Ameen suggested the voluntary nature of rehabilitation might mean the Prison Service motto “To hold and to treat” might more accurately be stated as “To hold.” She warned, “All we are doing is sending people to prison. We are breeding and multiplying criminality with those measures.”

Earlier, Wilson rated the Prison Service’s rehabilitation programme as seven out of ten. Richards asked how that could mesh with an 80 percent recidivism (re-offending) rate. Wilson replied that the service does “a fantastic job” while inmates are jailed, but recidivism may occur when ex-inmates do not get follow-up help when they are released. He said the rate was “high and not acceptable” and was concerned at a lack of follow-up for ex-inmates.

Wilson said, “If society turns their backs on them including family and employers, they will come right back into the system.”

JSC member Ancil Antoine said firearms offenders must be helped with rehabilitation, given the three-strikes-and-you’re-out Firearms Act, otherwise you are simply sentencing people to life imprisonment.

Vision on Mission’s (VOM’s) Gordon Husbands said the system was not built to rehabilitate anyone, including the very architecture of a local prison, and it was succeeding only due to the laudable creativity of a series of prison commissioners . He said a proper offender management system is needed, including knowing an inmate’s risks and tools and learning style, and having a correctional plan for him. “When inmates come out, they need supervision. Where is our Probation Department?”

Prison Service chief welfare officer Hayden Walcott said the service has an ideal complement of 55 posts for prison welfare officers, but in reality now has 18 officers in all on the job.

He said the ratio of welfare officers to inmates in jail in TT should ideally be 1:15 or 1:20. The ratio can even be 1:10 at YTRC (formerly YTC) where young offenders get very intensive attention, compared to inmates at remand yard, Walcott added. JSC member Ancil Antoine asked if prison welfare officers follow-up on ex-inmates on the outside. Walcott said an officer may make contact with an ex-inmate, but that upon release the Prison Service has no jurisdiction over him. Any such contact is voluntary, with the service not authorised to tell the ex-inmate what to do.

Husbands said classes in art and academics in jail are fine but sadly upon release inmates face barriers to get housing and jobs (due to apprehension by landlords and employers.) He spoke of expunging their sentences and said a Conditional Release and Rehabilitation Act proposed by VOM could remove many barriers they face. Husbands said any parole system in TT must operate in accordance with inmate rehabilitation.

VOM head Wayne Chance said his NGO has reached out to some employers fearful that ex-inmates they hire might commit a fresh crime. Lamenting it takes three to six months to get a TT ID card, he said VOM has an agreement with CEPEP to hire ex-inmates without ID cards. “30 people are employed in that.”

Chance said VOM runs an agricultural programme for ex-inmates at Wallerfield funded by the European Union, at a site where they can also live.

JSC member Christine Hosein asked if people could volunteer to help inmates. Asst Commissioner of Prisons Sherwin Bruce said people can submit their CVs, even as the Prison Service is approaching Costaat and TTARP for volunteers. Hosein asked about the role of probation officers in rehabilitating ex-inmates but no details were forthcoming from the Annmarie Dookie, head of the Ministry of National Security’s Monitoring and Evaluation Unit.