Prison superintendent outlines rehabilitative activities at facility

Acting Superintendent of the Dominica State Prison, Jeffrey Edmond has announced that in recent times, several inmates have been engaged in rehabilitated activities. Jeffrey, who was addressing a national security press conference this week, revealed that part of the activities includes building trade modules and trowel texture painting.

“The prison service is mandated by law to keep in safe custody those committed by the courts. Our duty is to help make them live law-abiding lives while in prison and upon release,” he said. “As a result of this mandate, we have sought to engage our inmates in a few rehabilitated activities, as such, once such activity is building trades module conducted under the auspices of the Youth Development Division, started on the 3rd of April this month and will go on for a maximum of four months.”

According to him, eleven inmates are engaged in this module.

“In March we had a painting trowel texture module. Some fifteen inmates were engaged in this module and at the end of the exercise inmates received certificates,” Edmond revealed. “ They learned the skill of preparing surfaces, preparing estimates, and the application of trowel texture.”

Moreover, he noted that the prison has formed a partnership with the Ministry of Social Services and as a result of this partnership has conducted assessments with inmates to commence psycho-social work in the prison.

Jeffrey said eighty-eight inmates have been enrolled and at the end of the exercise, “we will commence counseling exercises for inmates.”

“It is also envisioned that at some point prison staff themselves will also receive some form of counseling,” Edmund revealed.

He pointed out that soon inmates will be engaged in literacy and numeracy classes.

Edmond went on to state that Cabinet has approved the position of twenty-three new prison officers and as a result of this new mandate, eleven staff members have already been engaged.

“As we speak, they are in training,” Edmond revealed. “Last week they were in Morne Bruce Training School for a week and, as we speak, training continues at the prison.”

Meanwhile, Edmond said the buffer zone security feature is under construction, and prison officials are hopeful that in the next month or two, it will be completed.

“The buffer zone is a very important aspect in our security because persons with deviant behaviour have found it fitting to enter the prison and throw drugs over our fences for prison inmates,” he remarked. “The completion of the buffer zone will do very well for us.”