Correctional Services Continues Vigourous Rehabilitation Programmes

The Department of Correctional Services (DCS) continues to chart programmes, within the prison system, aimed at rehabilitating inmates and, ensuring the safety of the society by keeping offenders secure in penal institutions.

Director of Rehabilitation, Mrs. Sylvia Passley states that the Department is working assiduously to fulfill the needs of inmates, in addition to ensuring that they are empowered, rehabilitated and equipped with the requisite skills for their re-integration into the society, having served their sentences.

Mrs. Passley notes that the DCS has placed a lot of emphasis on the implementation of many rehabilitation programmes that the inmate population can benefit from. “We have the electronic monitoring/tracking programme and that is new to Jamaica,” she tells JIS News.

The electronic inmate tracking system, she says, was introduced in Jamaica in July 2011 and now has some 17 individuals enrolled, to date. She added that there are now nine offenders, including one female, who have been “tagged” and are currently being monitored.

In addition, Mrs. Passley notes that the ‘prison radio’ is among the myriad of programmes that the Correctional Services has introduced in the institutions across Jamaica to ensure inmates’ rehabilitation and re-integration. 

“The prison radio is now established at three adult institutions and one juvenile centre,” she informs, adding also that it was first introduced at the Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre. The programme was later expanded to the Fort Augusta and St. Catherine Adult Correctional Centres, as well as the Rio Cobre Juvenile Centre.

The ‘prison radio’ is streamed live on the Internet from the Department’s website (www.dcsj.net), and also aired on 88.9FM.

Commenting further on the rehabilitation programmes, Mrs. Passley says that the Department has been focusing on fulfilling the educational needs of the inmates through organised training sessions conducted by trained members of staff.

“Last year we had 53 candidates who sat the exams and approximately 90 per cent of the candidates passed,” she says, noting that inmates are becoming proficient in English, Mathematics, Principles of Business,  Principles of Accounts, Social Studies and, Human and Social Biology.

She also adds that many of the inmates are also participating in courses such as  carpentry, tailoring, dressmaking, drapery, in addition to music and home economics.

Importantly, Mrs. Passley informs that behavioural modification interventions have been done in the institutions, and this, she says, is where case managers, probation officers, counsellors and chaplains, aid in developing positive attitudes in inmates.  

She says the inmates are enthusiastic about the rehabilitation programmes as they are designed to help them to build their confidence and employability skills. “Most of them feel that once they have a certificate when they leave they are better able to be employed,” she adds.

The Director of Rehabilitation highlights that measures have been put in place to ensure that the programmes are sustainable. She notes that further evaluations will be done to see how best the programmes can be improved or remodeled for the benefit of the inmates and the society.

The rehabilitation programmes are being funded by the Department for International Development, the British Government, and Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA).The DCS was established in 1975.

By Toni-Ann Russell, JIS PRO