Saint Lucia, Guyana And Suriname To Cooperate On Prison Matters

Saint Lucia, Guyana, and Suriname have agreed to cooperate on matters regarding the management of their prisons. Senior prison officers from the three countries are attending the Guyana Prison Service (GPS) Annual Senior Officers’ Conference. Assistant Director of Corrections Chris Felix is representing Saint Lucia. Felix told the state-owned Guyana Chronicle that throughout the conference, they discussed and developed recommendations for solutions to prevalent issues in Saint Lucia, Suriname, and Guyana prisons. He told the Guyana publication that talks regarding exchange programmes have already occurred as the three nations seek to learn from each other. The Saint Lucia prison official planned to take home implementable development ideas from his trip to Guyana. The Guyana Prison Service (GPS) comprises five facilities and its Georgetown headquarters. There are 2,240 men and more than 60 women in prisons across Guyana. On the other hand, Saint Lucia built its Bordelais Correctional Facility (BCF) in 2003, with a capacity of 500 inmates. However, as of March 3, 2024, there were 592 inmates at the facility, including over 300 remand prisoners. One of the concerns regarding inmates is recidivism, the tendency of a convicted criminal to re-offend. Last year, Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre announced that...