Richards: Give incentives to hire ex-prisoners

Ceron Richards -

PRESIDENT of the Prison Officers Association (POA) Ceron Richards said government should offer incentives to companies to hire ex-prisoners.

He was speaking as the Joint Select Committee (JSC) on Social Services and Public Administration met with POA officials, Eye on Dependency programme, The Way of Holiness church, New Hope Prison Ministry and two reformed ex-offenders.

He said a notable impediment to ex-prisoners reintegration into society, and something the POA has complained about ad nauseam, was their lack of employability with a criminal record. He added that business owners, the public service and other entity the standard over the years for being employed was a certificate of good character.

Richards said the government can play a key role to motivate people to assist ex-prisoners in the area of employability. He pointed out that businesses benefit when they display good corporate social responsibility by giving donations to sports or sponsor events where they can get tax breaks and other benefits.

"Maybe the time has come to create additional incentives for persons who employ 'x' inmates and keep them within their employment. There must be some incentives so that people will believe 'well listen, the government has our backs so we will open up ourselves to facilitating opportunities."

He also stressed the need for legislative support for prison reform so that laws, policies and practices are standard.

Richards said most former inmates go to the security industry and are exploited, working 14-hour shifts and without proper terms. He explained the employers exploit them like this because they know the inmates cannot get another job.

He also said the prison system had no mandate to rehabilitate those on remand who are the majority of inmates but due to the slow pace of the justice system people were on remand for 17 years in some instances. He said the legislation to remove preliminary enquiries is a great idea as some people were waiting more than six years to have their case determined at the preliminary enquiry stage.

"That is cruel and extremely unusual punishment."

Ex-prisoner Dane Manickchand said he was employed as a litter warden from 2013-2016 but his contract was not renewed because of his conviction despite him being open about it repeatedly. He recalled he took the case to the Industrial Court and found there was no stated policy in the public service about hiring people with criminal records.

JSC chairman Paul Richards asked how the restorative approach could be instilled when you have ten men in one cell in squalid conditions. POA general secretary Lester Walcott said there is a need to transform Remand facility into a purpose-built prison.

Way of Holiness Senior Pastor Wilma Kelly asked how their could be rehabilitation with the Port of Spain Prison with rats "running up and down" and pigeons defecating. She said that for the past 23 years her church has assisted prisons in many ways including providing toilet paper and toothpaste and questioned how you rehabilitate people in a "dump".

"The prison under such a strain only God could help them."