Aimed at the boosting of rehabilitation opportunities for prisoners, the Guyana Prison Service’s reading room collection has been boosted with a number of books from the National Centre for Educational Resource Development (NCERD).
At the handing over ceremony which was held yesterday at NCERD’s boardroom, Mrs Marielle Bristol-Grant, Head of the Prison Service’s Welfare and Corrections Department expressed gratitude to NCERD for its kind donation.
She noted that the materials will contribute significantly to the prison`s literacy drive which aims at increasing the literacy rate among inmates.
Mrs Bristol-Grant said knowledge is the most powerful tool that can be used to change one’s position in life. She added that the academic and reading materials will also seek to empower the inmate’s abilities to participate fully in the array of rehabilitation programmes offered at the prison.
Director of NCERD, Mrs Quenita Walrond-Lewis reassured of NCERD’s and by extension the Ministry of Education’s unwavering support to the Guyana Prison Service as they attempt to change one life at a time through reading.
To this end, the Director, who is an Education Consultant and Project Manager by profession, assured the Prison Directorate that NCERD will provide the human resources support towards the service’s Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) programme, which is set to recommence this year.
Further in an invited comment Director of Prisons, Nicklon Elliott said the donations of books will strengthen the capacity to expose prisoners to rehabilitation opportunities.
“As part of our mandate, we are required to expose prisoners to rehabilitative programmes in prison. While we are limited in terms of our infrastructure, we are innovative in our approach to rehabilitation” Elliott said. As such, he said the donation is timely and will not only expose prisoners to reading but will also complement the recommencement of the CXC English A and B class scheduled for 2022.
