by Tricia Simon
Question: When do we as a village and a nation stop putting our young men in prison?
When do we say enough is enough? When do we ask them to sit at the table and contribute in a meaningful way to our society? When do we devise means and ways to provide them with comprehensive solutions through prison reform, restorative justice and rehabilitation? There is no better time than now for we are our brother’s keeper!
I was told by a police officer that poverty and lack of opportunities are key drivers of crime. This begs the question, how do we as a society in Grenada alleviate poverty and create viable opportunities for our youths? Statistics show that the majority of inmates are incarcerated for committing petty crimes, young, unemployed prior to being incarcerated and have not completed high school. Thus, with knowledge of these key driving factors, we need to find ways to address them so the prison can rid itself of our youth, for they are the key drivers of our future development.
Restorative justice focuses on “(1) Repair: crime causes harm and justice requires repairing that harm; (2) Encounter: the best way to determine how to do that is to have the parties decide together; and (3) Transformation: this can cause fundamental changes in people, relationships and communities.” Praedial larceny is the bane of our society in regards to farming. In a recent discussion with a farmer, he stated that as opposed to having de tief going to jail he was able to negotiate labour for the value of the goods. He relayed that was the most efficient 2 weeks of labour he ever received. The reality is that a diversion programme is needed for petty crimes whereas opposed to spending 6 months incarcerated for tiefin ah bag ah breadfruit, de tief wuk on de land for ah period. Dem tief doh like to wuk, so dis go stop dem from tiefin.
Follow the money. A United Nations report on restorative justice states, “In terms of cost-effectiveness, evidence from research suggests the potential of restorative justice to significantly reduce the costs relating to criminal justice (Sherman and Strang, 2007; Shapland et al., 2008). Based on a study conducted by Shapland et al. (2008), it was concluded that there is an 8 to 1 cost-benefit ratio, i.e., for every £1 spent on restorative justice conferencing, the criminal justice system will save £8 from reduced costs of reconviction.” The reality is that this requires a shift in our societal mindset towards crime, sentencing and incarceration. One where we see restorative justice as (a) economically beneficial to the state as the state no longer has to cover the cost of incarceration (b) economically beneficial for society as this individual would now provide economic benefits to society through gainful employment (c) economic benefit for the victim as they would be financially compensated for the harm done.
Rehabilitation of prisoners and the social integration of prisoners is seen as “Investments into corresponding programmes for prisoners are one of the best and most cost-effective ways of preventing their re-offending, with significant benefits not only for the individuals concerned but also for public safety more broadly.” This helps to prevent recidivism as at times individuals coming out of prison suffer from a myriad of issues including mental health issues, homelessness, lack of employment opportunities and the stigma attached to a stint in prison.
At present our prison offer inmates the opportunity to complete secondary school, training through the MPower government-run programme to build capacity and knowledge base for our young men. With this, we also need to provide comprehensive programmes including parenting classes, for they are our future fathers and anger management, discipline, personal development skills and skills to obtain jobs in the technology sector such as coding and other computer-based careers which are the careers of the future. The opportunity lies for inmates to engage with the Imani programme to obtain the ability to attend post-secondary institutions such as TAMCC. The statistics show that with an education the chances of committing crime is low. The reality is that this segment of our youth population requires special attention for them to thrive and become productive Grenadian and global citizens!
Tricia Simon is an Attorney-at-Law called to the bar in the State of Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique and the Province of Ontario, Canada.
