President seeks long term measures to fix Guyana’s prison system

“Our presence here is not just a gut reaction. It is a plan to ensure that there is a long term strategy. We are ensuring that the Guyana Prison Service fulfills its mandate. We have to build a system in which persons who enter this service as inmates would have the best opportunities for rehabilitation and those who are incorrigible… would be prevented from bringing harm to society,” the President said.

President seeks long term measures to fix Guyana’s prison system

President David Granger has announced that his government intends to find and implement long-term solutions to the problems facing the Guyana Prison system.

Yesterday, the president along with the Minister of public Security and the Minister of State visited the facilities at the Mazaruni prison.

Mr. Granger said the problems facing the prison service must be solved and there must not just be gut reaction.

“Our presence here is not just a gut reaction.  It is a plan to ensure that there is a long-term strategy.  We are ensuring that the Guyana Prison Service fulfills its mandate. We have to build a system in which persons who enter this service as inmates would have the best opportunities for rehabilitation and those who are incorrigible… would be prevented from bringing harm to society,” the President said.

He added that Guyana has to build a system in which persons who enter the prison service as inmates would have the best opportunities for rehabilitation and those who are irredeemable, would be prevented from bringing harm to society.

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The visit to the Mazaruni prison came on the heels of last week’s riots inside the camp street jail which resulted in the death of 17 inmates.

Those inmates were burnt to death after starting a fire as part of their protest against prison conditions.

A commission of inquiry has been named to begin looking in to the camp street incident. The government has also started to make moves to address many of the concerns of inmates of the local prison system.

“What occurred in Georgetown ought not to have occurred had improvements been introduced to the Guyana Prison Service over a period of time… Some of the measures, which could have corrected or could have prevented the events of last week were not implemented”, Mr. Granger noted. 

During his visit, he also met with prison staff and assured them that the Government will try its utmost to ensure that their issues, particularly those that relate to their personal welfare and that of their families, are addressed in line with what obtains within the other services, which fall under the remit of the Ministry of Public Security.

The Mazaruni prison currently houses a total of 289 inmates, 24 of whom are high-profile criminals.

It requires a staff complement of 95 prison officers, but the facility only has 54 on staff currently.

 

 

 

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