Home Affairs and Crime Prevention Minister Jeremiah Norbert has criticised the lip service paid to prisoner rehabilitation, declaring that now is the time to act.
In this regard, Norbert welcomed a new ‘Community Reentry’ initiative to assist citizens who break the law in reintegrating into society, thus reducing recidivism.
The project’s partners are the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Ministry of Equity, Social Justice and Empowerment, and the Department of Probation and Parole.
The initiative will initially target twenty-five inmates, providing them with psychosocial support, life skills, and career guidance and counseling.
Norbert has called on the private and public sectors to rethink their policies regarding entry requirements for persons who have served their time.
He urged both sectors to find mechanisms to ensure a peaceful transition, not engaging in further discrimination and penalty.
“For too long we’ve had a Victorian approach to Criminal Justice Reform in our country. We’ve discarded individuals after any conflict with the law, as if they’re outcasts, ignoring that they can be rehabilitated, make penance and contribute effectively towards society upon completion of their penal sentence,” the Minister asserted.
According to a Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) official, the institution’s recidivism rate is as high as fifty percent or more.
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