Correctional facilities get over $120m from UK to aid rehabilitation
Correctional facilities islandwide have benefited from $121.4 million (£620,000) in support aid from the United Kingdom’s (UK) Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), to improve its capacity, reduce recidivism and provide reintegration support to offenders.
The FCDO has provided this support through its Jamaica Strategic Corrections Partnership, which ended recently.
Minister without Portfolio in the Ministry of National Security, Senator Matthew Samuda, said while other arms of the security architecture have been undergoing infrastructural and administrative changes, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) remained underfunded, which posed a threat to rehabilitation needs and services.
“The partnership is important to national security because it directly targets recidivism, which is at the core of our mission”, said Samuda during a meeting with the British High Commissioner, His Excellency Asif Ahmad at the Ministry’s Oxford Offices in Kingston on Wednesday, November 11, 2020.
The Jamaica Strategic Corrections Partnership Project has provided support in capacity building activities within the correctional services through training, policy development, and inmate risk and needs assessments since 2017. Under the project, ex-offenders and parolees were also introduced to life skills training and income-generating opportunities such as ornamental fish farming and honey production.
Samuda pointed out that Jamaica’s recidivism rate is just over 40 per cent but could be improved, especially when compared to the recidivism rates held by safer countries.
“The facts are that reoffending rates are critically too high in a country that has grappled with the issue of violent crimes for far too long. The truth is, to truly transform our facilities, not just in infrastructure but in procedures and care, it will take partnerships like this”, explained the senator.
Meanwhile, British High Commissioner to Jamaica, Asif Ahmad said like Jamaica, the UK also grapples with reoffenders.
“The last thing you want, and it is a challenge in the UK as much as it is in Jamaica, is reoffenders – people rotating in and out in the prison system for their entire life, and unless we break that sequence, we are fighting an impossible cause”, he said while noting that UK remains firm in its commitment.
All 11 correctional facilities and several ex-offenders in Jamaica benefited from the funds donated to the DCS, from the UK’s Conflict, Stability and Security Fund, which operates globally.
Taken from : https://www.loopjamaica.com/content/correctional-facilities-get-over-120m-uk-aid-rehabilitation