BIG PLANS are afoot to improve rehabilitation programmes in the island's correctional facilities.

Acting Commissioner of Corrections June Jarrett says millions of pounds provided by the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Aid will boost a number of projects in the upcoming year. The funds will develop the prison rehabilitation system over an 18-month period.

Among the projects slated for funding is another radio station and studio for prisoners which will, this time, be placed at the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre. The Tower Street Adult Correctional Centre already has one such facility.

Expansion of trade training

The funds will also see to an expansion of trade training facilities through the establishment of training centres at both St Catherine and Tower Street.

According to Jarrett, many inmates leave prison better individuals than they had come.

"They are involved in auto-mechanics, metal craft, cabinet making. We even have a gentleman who does painting and he had a exhibition at a gallery on Trafalgar Road," boasts Jarrett.

She says a move is being made to have all the programmes the prisons offer accredited by HEART Trust/NTA.

Training for managers

The UK's aid also includes training for managers.

Meanwhile, there will be a roll-out of more prison work programmes come next year. Jarrett says there has been increasing demand for their work. Last year, prisoners completed 18 public works projects, she says.

"It is not true that prisoners come there to get fat and brown," Jarrett states. "Not all of them. There are some of them who we can't take on the outside. They are impacting on the community with the limited resources we have," she adds.

She says prisoners completed projects on a number of schools this year including the Cumberland High School in St Catherine, where the grounds were in poor condition, playing haven to criminals.

"You could not stay from there Cumberland High School and see houses which were a few chains away," Jarrett reports. "But if you go to Cumberland now all the shrubs all the bushes are cut down and even the park for the children was cleaned and developed."

Cheap labour

She adds that the project was slated to cost over $2 million, but prisoners completed it for a little over quarter million dollars.

"They work hard. They don't let up and they complete the job. They don't joke when you see them out there. They wear their red cap, red T-shirt, khaki pants and boots," she says.

Jarrett says the Bellevue and National Chest hospitals are also among institutions slated to be improved by prisoners next year.