More young women are entering the prison system - it's a concerning trend being reported by the Prisons Commissioner, who says, the Service continues to work with all prisoners towards rehabilitation and reintegration into society. The Commissioner was speaking at a Fashion Show put on by pre-release inmates of the Women's Prison.
00:00The prison's commissioner reports that more women have been entering the prison system at younger ages in recent years.
00:07The woman's information as of today, just about in the population, just about 88 inmates there.
00:13The majority, of course, are remanded inmates.
00:15Just about, I just think, just under 20 convicted and the other persons are in fact remanded,
00:20which is to say matters yet before the court, not yet concluded.
00:24Generally, there has been a fall in the ages of the female inmates at women's prison.
00:31Of course, it has to do with what we have said in general, uptake in crime and criminality in the country.
00:37So that will express itself in terms of the number of female inmates.
00:41Still, female inmates account for less than 3% of the country's 3,200 prison population, which is said to be slightly decreasing.
00:51There are some additional initiatives that keep people out of prison in terms of the maximum sentence indicators.
00:59Of course, bail is now available.
01:01Even persons charged for murder since the Achille Charles judgment of the Privy Council.
01:06So that in itself has allowed us to see a reduced number in terms of overall.
01:11But certainly the ages of the women who come into prison seemingly, it is starting at a law age.
01:18The prison's commissioner was speaking at a fashion show put on by pre-release inmates of the women's prison.
01:24I want to thank the Ministry of the People and Social Development for engaging in this program.
01:30This program is the second tier of a first phase that started with the female juveniles.
01:36And of course, today we have treated with the female, adult females.
01:40And I am told that we are looking at carrying the project of the male inmates.
01:46So I look forward to that.
01:48Because of course, it is a key part of our correctional educational program, which is to say programs aimed at rehabilitating inmates.
01:56And more particularly, it speaks to the technical vocational side.
02:00And garment construction and teaching the ladies skills that could endear even beyond the incarceration, allow them to earn some form of livelihood.
02:10But a little more than that, where this program is concerned, because we are speaking here about building self-esteem.
02:15You can see the behavior of the young ladies today exposed to fashion and all that goes with that.
02:21Build that self-esteem gives them the opportunity to change their moral cognitive outlook.
02:25Outlook, all right, as a man or woman think it so, is he or she.
02:29And therefore, it is critical that we get them to see themselves in a particular way.
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