Department of Correctional Services to heighten focus on reintegrating offenders

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) will be placing greater focus on successfully reintegrating rehabilitated offenders into the society.

State Minister in the Ministry of National Security, Zavia Mayne, who made the disclosure, said this forms part of the Government’s thrust to reform the correctional services.

“We have recognised that we have to do more where the reintegration of our [rehabilitated] inmates [is concerned], when they leave our walls,” he said.

The state minister was speaking during the recent official opening of the renovated Block B dormitory at the Rio Cobre Juvenile Correctional Centre in Spanish Town, St Catherine.

As part of its rehabilitation programme, the DCS provides literacy and numeracy education at the basic, intermediate, and advanced levels to inmates and wards.

The DCS also facilitates various vocational skills, including carpentry, farming, metal work, tailoring, auto mechanics, cosmetology, computer studies, home economics, plumbing, masonry, and electrical installation.

A rehabilitation grant is available to persons who have been incarcerated for at least one year.

This provision is intended to assist inmates to establish viable businesses when they return to their communities.

Under the work release programme, a conditional arrangement is provided for eligible inmates to be engaged in productive and gainful work in open society.

Mayne indicated that, going forward, the DCS will be spending time and resources to ensure that when inmates are paroled, particularly those participating in the life-changing opportunities provided, “we walk with them, we pilot them, and we assist them in reintegrating into the society”.

Additionally, he said that as part of the DCS’s modernisation, new legislation will be introduced and the administrative processes reformed.

Mayne further advised that improvements in conditions at the existing correctional facilities are to be undertaken as well as construction of a facility, which will form part of the modernisation exercise.