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Bahamas prison system is a major contributor of crime in the Islands
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'Prison system major contributor to crime' :
By CANDIA DAMES, Guardian News Editor -
Nassau, Bahamas:




The prison system remains "one of the major contributors to crime in the country", National Advisory Council on Crime (NACC) Chairman Bishop Simeon Hall declared yesterday.

Bishop Hall discussed the recommendations contained in the Council's report to National Security Minister Tommy Turnquest after The Nassau Guardian exclusively revealed details in what had been a closely guarded document.

In addition to the recommendations made to improve the judicial system and resume capital punishment, as revealed in yesterday's article, the Council made many other recommendations.

Under the rubric Prison and Rehabilitation, the NACC recommends that as a medium- to long-term goal authorities implement a parole board system. It said this would utilize the support mechanism of the Pre-release Program as a step toward reducing recidivism and to transforming the system from a punitive to a correctional one.

Following upon a plan that had been articulated under the Christie administration, the Council recommends that the name of Her Majesty's Prisons be changed to the Department of Corrections.

"It remains a penal rather than a restorative institution," Hall told The Guardian, adding that he's hopeful that the recommendations are implemented in a timely fashion.

Forty-nine recommendations were made and separated into three categories: short-term (zero to three months); medium-term (four to 12 months) and long-term (12 months and beyond).

"I'm very pleased with what we have done," said Hall, who was selected by government late last year to head the Council at a time when crime remained a major concern in the country. "I hope that we would disappoint those who would think that nothing will come out of the commission."

The NACC recommends that authorities provide support for established safety net programs for ex-offenders whose families reject them upon discharge and who are unable to find accommodation otherwise.

"The resources of existing institutional providers of services are too limited to reach a significant number of ex-offenders to make an appreciable impact on their reintegration into society," the report says. "These service institutions must be expanded to achieve a desirable reduction in recidivism."

The Council also makes other recommendations relative to the prison system: expand entrepreneurial projects and programs currently being taught at the prison; broaden public awareness of the report card system for discharged persons; establish and adopt-an-inmate program at the prison and establish court facilities at the prison to avoid the danger and cost of transporting inmates through communities.

Touching on socialization issues, the NACC advises the implementation of a national instrument to provide focus and direction to youth related programs; the promotion of positive lifestyles and culture for young people; the strengthening of the national curriculum to instill a greater sense of national pride and self esteem in young people; the establishment of a gang intervention and prevention program and the increase of penalties for unlicensed firearm possession.

Authorities are also advised to strengthen and make mandatory family life studies in "all" schools and pass legislation to hold parents accountable legally and financially for the destructive actions of minors.

"While minor children and very young persons are brought before the courts for minor criminal infractions, no punitive correctional action is taken in instances where public properties are defaced [or] destroyed," the report says.

The Council advises that the government implement a program of community service for deviant youth and mandate parents to reimburse or replace properties proven to have been destroyed by their minor children.

"The commission's report is not a magic wand to just cause everything to go away, but we believe that should they (the recommendations) be implemented, certainly we should begin to see a difference in the not too distant future," Hall said yesterday.

October 9, 2008 | 4:13 PM Comments  0 comments

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