The newly appointed Guyana Prison Service’s (GPS) Agriculture Development Board sees farming as a major tool in the rehabilitation process of prisoners.
According to Chairman of the Board, Dr. Simpson Da Silva, skills gained by prisoners in areas of animal husbandry, cash crop farming and agro-processing will see them being able to sustain themselves, and reintegrate into their community.
When prisoners complete their period of incarceration, the chairman explained that they would by then have been exposed to hardcore agricultural production, agro-processing and information communication technology. Those who are successful in their training will be certified via a Memorandum of Understanding which will be signed in the near future with the University of Guyana.
The GPS has embarked on a number of other programmes offering inmates the chance to learn skills in music, carpentry, masonry, ICT, sewing, and accounts as part of the rehabilitation process which seeks to offer them a chance to be reintegrated into society upon their release.
The Agriculture Development Board was recently reconstituted and aims to have the farming capability of the GPS’ farms enhanced. This move should eventually return the GPS to being self-sufficient in food as it was decades ago, the Government Information Agency stated in a release.
