TT/Canada work on prison reform

Advisor to Canada's Commissioner of Correctional Services, Michael Ryan, spent a week in Trinidad as part of a team which also including Canada's High Commissioner to TT, Kumar Gupta, to look at ways at improving prison reform.

A release from the Ministry of Communications on Friday, stated that the visit came on the heels of High Commissioner Gupta’s presentation of credentials to President Paula-Mae Weekes.

Activities during the visit included meetings with Minister of National Security Stuart Young, Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, Commissioner of Police Gary Griffith and Ag. Commissioner of Prisons Dane Clarke.

The release said that the prison service continues to engage with Correctional Service Canada (CSC) under a Charter of Commitments, signed in October 2017. CSC and TT prison service are working together towards the transition from a punitive model to a rehabilitation model for the local prison system.

Progress on the work done under the Charter includes collaboration where senior management of TT prison service have visited facilities in Canada to observe and learn about best practices of corrections management. Working in partnership, both agencies have identified areas where members of the TT senior prisons management can get further training.

There are plans to undertake on-the-ground training for program and parole officers, in anticipation of the tabling of legislation for the introduction of a parole system in TT, aimed at moving towards rehabilitation of inmates and increasing public safety.