Jamaica Looks At Alternatives
Jamaica has told the inaugural Caribbean Probation Officers’ Conference that it supports the idea of community corrections as a strategy to deal with overcrowding at penal institutions and reduce costs. Story from Go-Jamaica.
“It is currently costing taxpayers approximately US$9,672 annually to maintain an inmate in custodial care,” National Security Minister Dwight Nelson told a meeting today. “Community Corrections refer to and recognize that there are alternatives to incarceration, such as probation and supervision orders, the ultimate aim of which is to realign the offender to live in the community as a peaceful, productive being without removing him into a custodial setting,” he said.
Mr. Nelson also praised probation officers and said they “are assigned the monumental task of protecting the public by helping perpetrators to be rehabilitated, by reducing the rate of re-offending perpetrators.”
Acting Commissioner of Corrections, Mrs. June Spence-Jarrett said it “behoves us to make community corrections the way forward, as it reduces costs to our tax dollars. We must deepen our relationships, so that we become partners and stakeholders in the criminal justice processes. We must have greater public involvement in the probation/community services.”
The conference, which is being held under the theme: ‘Community Corrections: 21st Century Approach’, is being attended by delegates from 12 Caribbean countries.
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